


The Riverbank

by IRegretNothingAndEverything



Series: Rogue Stars [1]
Category: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Abuse, Abusive Relationships, Amnesia, Angst, Betrayal, Blood, Body Horror, Character Death, Family Death, G-Man is aroace here, Gaslighting, Hurt/Comfort, I had this idea at three am and I am now here to write it and make my friends hurt, I'm in love with the designs of the Star OCs, Kidnapping, Temporary Amnesia, Temporary Character Death, Torture, Whatever Fuck It, a lot of this happens in later chapters but uhhhh yeah there you go, and g-man doesnt use pronouns, basically? Tommy is a star and G-Man a black hole, benrey uses he/they/dae, boomer but they're QPPs with G-Man, bubby uses most he but also xe/xym, coomer uses he/it, darnold is genderfluid and uses he/him and she/her on different days, did you know villains count in major character death tags?, genocide mention, i looked up a death list of all the characters in the Flash show to figure that out :), in later chapters rn it's just implied, missing person, oh quick pronoun rundown while im here, okay so those tags are out of order, that's..., the goomby here is, this ties heavily into my idea for the Tommy G-Man backstory I have laid our, tommy and gordon both use he/him, tommy's a star babey!, yeah - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:49:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 23
Words: 23,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26427403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IRegretNothingAndEverything/pseuds/IRegretNothingAndEverything
Summary: Gordon wakes up on the river, water soaking through his clothes and freezing him in the dark night, with no memory of who he is or where he got there. He's quickly found by Tommy and Sunkist as he wanders through the streets, and, when Tommy's name sparks a small memory, he goes with back to the apartment. Here, he finds out that he's been missing for the past week, even hidden from Tommy and G-Man's view, and Benrey is still gone.
Relationships: Benrey/Gordon Freeman/Tommy Coolatta/Darnold, Bubby/Dr. Coomer/The G-Man (Half-Life)
Series: Rogue Stars [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1937734
Comments: 69
Kudos: 142





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I had this sudden idea for this entire fic, and just went !!! at three am. Have fun!

Water lapped at his clothing, leaving him soaked and chilled as the night settled around him. He opened his eyes slowly, head pounding, confused. Where was he? 

Carefully, he sat up, pushing himself up on his left hand, through what he assumed as muscle memory. A glance down at his right proved it to be missing, and he simply stared for a moment, wondering how that had happened. 

Another small wave came up, re-soaking his pant legs, and he sighed, standing on shaky feet to move away from the water, stumbling up the riverbank a few feet. 

He was on the side of a street now, looking around the town he was in. It felt familiar, but still, he couldn’t place where he was, as if he were floating about in space, looking at the constellations, but unable to know which way to go to get back down to Earth. 

So he simply began to walk. One foot in front of the other, stumbling his way down the sidewalk in the dark. This was when he realized that he wasn’t wearing shoes. Strange. Looking down at himself, he finally took himself in completely. Dirty clothing, torn up in places, showing half healed wounds that weren’t bleeding anymore, though some looked as if they were going to start again. He was limping, he realized, one ankle shooting pain up his leg whenever he took a step, and he leaned against the wall to stop it, dragging his shoulder across the brick, though the pain of the barely registered on top of everything else. 

Dragging his hand through his hair, he found it grimy, unbrushed, and, based on everything, he assumed he hadn’t been able to find the time, nor place, to brush it, not with whatever the hell was going on. Why couldn’t he remember? 

A dog barked in the distance, and he lifted his head, eyes darting towards the noise. A large golden dog was barreling towards him, her human, who looked extremely tall, even from this distance, racing after her. She stopped short of him, not jumping up on him, barking a few times, tail thumping a heavy beat against the concrete. She knew him, he realized, knew who he was. Which meant- 

“Gordon!” The tall man skidded to a stop, eyes wide as he took in his appearance. Gordon? Was... was that his name? “Where have you been? We-we’ve been looking all- everywhere for you!” He seemed scared, this tall man, and Gordon frowned, looking back down to the dog, who was staring at him, head tilted to the side, though her tail did not stop thumping heavily against the ground. She looked so big, fit to the tall man’s size. 

“You... you know me?” Gordon asked, eyes darting back up towards the tall man’s face, taking in his appearance as he did. He also looked disheveled, but not to the extent that Gordon was. It was more from running in something not meant to be run in, and maybe having slept in the same clothing from the day before. He wasn’t dirty like Gordon, which lead him to believe that he had simply been looking for awhile. He finally landed on his face, where confusion was shining through, though with the golden glowing tears building up in his eyes, it wasn’t the only thing shining. 

“Of course I know you, Gordon, what happened?” Ah. Gordon really wished, in that moment, that he could answer that. He hated seeing this man so upset, with the golden tears streaking down his face, the fear there, and Gordon sighed, looking back down towards the dog as not to have to look at him anymore. 

“I’m sorry... I, I wish I could answer that, I wish I could... remember you, but I... I just woke up, and I don’t know.” There was a moment of silence, before Gordon found himself in a hug, gentle as not to disturb his various wounds, but still clinging. 

“It’s okay. We’ll... we’ll figure it out. Let’s get you back to the apartment, alright?” Gordon pulled back a bit, as Sunkist wagged her tail besides him, pressed against his side. “The others need to know what happened. I’m... I’m Tommy. Tommy Coolatta.” 

Coolatta. Gordon frowned at that. The name was familiar, yes, but that’s not the point. Coolatta was something else, Gordon was sure of it. He looked back towards Tommy, as he picked up the leash attached to the dog’s vest. He frowned at the dog a moment as well, eyes narrowed. Her name... was right there... If he could just... 

“Gordon?” He blinked, looking back towards Tommy, who smiled, holding out a hand. “Come on. I’ll take you home.” 

“Uh... yeah, alright.” He took Tommy’s hand, then looked back towards the large dog once more. “... Sunkist.” He muttered, and Tommy started by his side, head moving back towards him, eyes wide. “That’s her name, right? Sunkist? It sounds right, but-” 

“No, no, that’s right! You... remembered her?” 

“A little bit. Like if I keep picking at this wall, it’ll come down and I’ll remember more. I know Sunkist... and I know there’s a cat usually on her back when she walks around the apartment? That sounds stupid to remember but...” 

“No! It’s good. The fact that things are coming-coming back at all means- that’s good!” He grinned at Gordon, who couldn’t help but smile back up at him, and they began to walk. “The apartment is just around here. Darnold might still be out, but the others, Dad, Dr. Coomer, and Bubby, should all be back by, by now.” Gordon nodded, blinking as he picked at the wall, flashes of who they were coming to mind, just ideas of people he knew, and yet couldn’t remember. 

It would be fine. They were coming back up, the apartment being close, and Gordon looked back towards Tommy after a moment, watching as the golden glow of his tears faded as they dried. Strange... and yet he was oddly calmed by this. The glow faded when the emotion that he felt that caused them faded. He wasn’t upset anymore, and Gordon smiled at the knowledge. 

They walked up the steps of the building, pushing open the door, Sunkist pressing her body against it to hold it open for them. It was then that Gordon remembered he was soaking wet, and freezing, shivering the entire time they had been talking. He laughed to himself about it, and stamped his feet just outside the door in an attempt to get some of the excess water off of him before following Tommy inside. 

Sunkist led the way up the stairs confidently, and Gordon leaned on Tommy to keep his ankle from giving out half way up. Tommy seemed to easily be able to support him, and even let Sunkist go from her leash, though she never went farther than the next landing up. They were only on the third floor, the stairs wouldn’t be that much of an issue. 

Little memories, little things, filtered back into his mind, and Gordon shook his head. All this little details, and nothing he remembered meant anything to him. Third floor, sure, but what number? Sure he knew Tommy’s name now, and that a Coolatta was also a Dunkin Donuts drink, but why? It was... frustrating, but he said nothing, as Tommy half dragged him down the hallway, exhaustion peaking through his entire body. 

Sunkist barked outside the door, and another tall man opened it, brushing a hand down Sunkist’s back as she pushed her way in. Tommy lit up upon seeing this man, and Gordon frowned slightly, noting the grey skin, and the suit. Strange... 

“Hey dad... I found him.” Eyes darted down to him for a moment, and Gordon lifted his stump in a wave, vision beginning to blur. 

“Uh... hello sir...” Surprise fell across the man’s features, and and Gordon blinked, trying to clear his vision. He glanced down at himself, trying to see if it was blood loss that caused this, but none of his wounds had opened again, at least as far as he could tell. The blood staining his clothing might be new and he would have no clue. 

“Careful Tommy, he... appears to be. close to passing out.” Just as the man said that, Gordon keeled over, world going dark as he collapsed into Tommy’s arms.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wooo!! I really love this thing I've got here. I dunno what it is about HLVRAI that just makes the writing machine go BRRR at me but it's going!

“No, no, he should be fine. These all look like they’ve been sweet voiced.” Gordon floated, listening in to the conversation happening above him. He was laying on something soft, his head in someone’s lap, with his ankle propped up under what he assumed to be pillows. He didn’t open his eyes yet. He didn’t actually know if he could accomplish that. Still. The voice was nice. He knew that voice. “I mean, not well, of course. They’re not fully healed, Benrey must have been around him when this was going on. You didn’t see Benrey anywhere?” 

“Just Gordon. He was wandering around the street, I dunno how long it had been, but he was still dripping wet, so he must’ve been near the river at some point.” 

Gordon groaned softly as he felt someone press against his side, grimacing and turning his head towards the side. He didn’t pull away from the pressure, which eased a bit when he made the noise, keeping still. There was a hand on his forehead, slowly dragging over his hair like they were keeping it out of his face. 

“Gordon?” 

He didn’t reply. He didn’t think he could, really. His head felt heavy. 

“No, he’s still out I think. At the very least he, he isn’t awake.” The pressure returned, and Gordon whined lowly, though Darnold-it had to be Darnold, that was Darnold’s voice, he was sure of it-whispered apologies to him as he worked. 

Finally, finally, he forced his eyes open, half buried in someone’s stomach as he was. He turned his head slowly, blinking in the bright light as their faces came into... well not focus. He couldn’t see all that well, but they weren’t as blurry as they were when he passed out, so Gordon was taking that as a win. He looked up towards the ceiling for a moment, blinking a few times before someone pressed his glasses to his face. 

He didn’t know the name of who it was, nor the person who had his head in their lap, but Gordon recognized them, and thus said nothing, as Darnold stood, nodding carefully. “There. He’ll be a bit sore, but they’re all bandages, and he should be alright.” 

“Thanks... Darnold.” He muttered, and Darnold started. He grinned over at him. “Tommy told me your guys names... Your voice just... connected to it.” 

Darnold nodded slightly, carefully taking Gordon’s hand to help pull him to sit up. There was another hand on his back, carefully pushing him up, and Gordon glanced back towards the person, smiling in thanks, eyes darting just for a moment to the exposed metal of his arms, but said nothing. 

“Do you remember anything else?” Tommy asked softly, and Gordon shifted, carefully moving his ankle down as not to agitate it too much, and to sit properly on the couch. Darnold frowned at this, guiding him to prop it on the coffee table. 

“Uhm... G-Man’s name? I guess. That’s a thing. You just called G-Man dad, so I didn’t...” He closed his eyes again, for a moment, head tilted back. He glanced back around, noting that G-Man wasn’t there, but there was another person settled on the couch around the bend, sitting there quietly, staring at him. He looked back at the person next to him, who smiled. 

“Hello Gordon.” 

Gordon found himself smiling. “Dr. Coomer...” He muttered, as something akin to relief flooded through him. He didn’t understand the source of it, but something about Coomer being there in front of him, safe, and unharmed. He shifted, hooking an arm around him, tugging Coomer into a hug. 

“Of course he recognizes you from that.” Bubby snarked from the couch, but he was grinning, and Gordon, despite having his arm half caught around Coomer as Coomer hugged him, pointed towards Bubby. 

“You too. Get over here.” Bubby rolled his eyes, but stood, moving over to let himself be dragged into a hug. 

“What’s this about, Gordon?” Coomer mumbled, and Gordon pulled away, smiling. 

“Good question, I’m just happy you’re okay.” There was something there, something peeking behind that wall, but Gordon didn’t pick at it, not yet, worried what he would find there that made him so relieved that they were all okay. 

“Well, we are.” Bubby settled on Gordon’s other side, and no one deigned to explain to him what that feeling meant. He was sure it was going to come up eventually, but for now, he didn’t know, and that was fine. He would pick at the wall and let it come crashing down, as inane, random bullshit memories filtered back. Nothing important. Nothing of the past week. 

“Well, we can speed this up a bit with sweet voice, Tommy.” Darnold settled on one side of Gordon’s propped up leg, and Tommy nodded, throat glowing in a strange teal, before he sang and- 

_He hurt. Everything hurt, he felt like he had been torn apart and put back together. Benrey was on one side of him, pressure on bleeding wounds, sweet voice slipping between his teeth in silence, no noise as not to alert them._

_“Come on Gordon...” He muttered, and, very quickly, sung out a note, teal to green slipping between his teeth to settle on the gaping wounds in his torso, trying to heal as much as he could before they got back, before they returned and hurt him more. “Come on, just wake up, it’s fine.”_

_“Ben... Benrey...” He hoped that was verbal. God, he felt so bad, he just, he needed to let Benrey know it wasn’t his fault, it wasn’t. Another quick burst of healing beam, settling along his bleeding wounds, and Benrey finally looked at him, one hand cupping his face.  
_

_“It’s alright, we’ll be alright, they’re still looking for us, I know they are.” Benrey was crying. Why was Benrey crying? It was okay, he had said that himself, they were still looking. Tommy and G-Man could find them if nothing else, he was sure of it. Everything would be okay. “But you can’t keep going through this.”  
_

_Gordon didn’t understand. He wasn’t going to leave Benrey here alone, never, not that he could get out, and Benrey’s own abilities were weakened, hence the half healed wounds littering Gordon’s body. Benrey did his best, always, and Gordon knew that._

_A skeleton. Benrey had friends of skeletons, right? Was he finally strong enough to get them out of here? Gordon grinned at him, blood staining his teeth, and Benrey just smiled back, tears flowing faster, and placed a hand on his forehead._

_“I’m sorry...” and Gordon’s head burst into flames.  
_

“Gordon!” His eyes flew open. He was collapsed against Bubby, tears streaking down his face, Bubby having one arm around him, holding him up. The sweet voice had stopped, though his ankle felt marginally better, so some of it must have gotten out. His head still hurt, like whatever Benrey did echoed through the sudden memory. 

He sat up, eyes darting around. They looked... scared for him, he was sure of that, but Gordon didn’t care. 

“What happened? Where’s... Where’s Benrey?” 

“You... you remember Benrey?” Tommy asked, and Gordon nodded quickly, eyes wide. 

"They’re... they’re the one who got me out, where is he? He was supposed to be strong enough to get us both out by now, I know that.” Gordon wrapped his arms around his middle carefully, chest heaving as he tried to calm down. 

“Gordon... He wasn’t with you when you woke up...” His eyes flicked back towards Tommy, and Gordon nodded slowly. “That means... he probably didn’t get out.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehe! <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Three chapters babey! I really love this fic. I'm having a lot of fun.

“Didn’t... Didn’t get out, what do you mean by that?” Gordon asked, and Tommy frowned, staring down at his hands. 

“I just... It means that wherever you two were... He’s still there. He’s alive, I know that much, but that’s all I know. I can’t-I can’t trace the signal of his life force like I can you guys. I wasn’t... able to do that with you either. When you were there. When you showed up again, I knew. So I went towards... you.” Tommy fidgeting with his hands, picking at the cuticles for a moment, until Darnold reached under Gordon’s leg to snag Tommy’s hand, holding it instead. Tommy frowned at him, but Darnold simply stared back at him until Tommy dropped his hand, rubbing the material of his shirt instead. 

Gordon was quiet for a moment as he watched this go down, thinking. He knew that Benrey had been the cause of his memory loss, dae had to be, there was nothing else that Benrey could have done that lead to Gordon waking up outside where he had been, with no memory of anything. But why? 

“Gordon, what did you remember?” Coomer asked softly, and Gordon looked over, frowning at him for a moment, before sighing. 

“Benrey... Benrey tried to help me. That’s the sweet voice. He couldn’t do it too much? I don’t know why that is, but he did try, he wasn’t powerful enough to get out, and he was... he was trying to conserve it? And He... He’s the one who locked my memory.” 

Tommy stared at him. “No, no he wouldn’t-” 

“What else am I supposed to think when he apologies to me and then my head lights itself on fire?” Gordon asked, and Tommy shrunk in on himself slightly, frowning. “I don’t know why he did, but I... I know he did.” 

There was silence for a moment more, before Tommy nodded slightly. “Okay... I mean... It makes sense why it’s not that hard to break through to your memories. Did you... get anything else there?” Gordon frowned at the question, thinking back on the memory he had gotten. 

“He’s sure we’re still looking.” Gordon said softly, and Tommy nodded quickly, tears building up quickly, glowing brightly. Bubby pressed against one side, Coomer the other, as Gordon paused for a moment, staring at his hands. “That entire time, no matter what they did to us, Benrey would say ‘they’re still looking, keeping hold on.’...” 

“They?” Coomer asked softly, and Gordon sighed, shaking his head. 

“There were a few of them. I don’t remember anything else, but I know there was more than one.” Gordon closed his eyes as his head began to pound once more. He leaned back, pressing an arm over his eyes. “But all I’m getting is from everything but the past week. All I get is that phrase, over and over.” 

He felt Bubby wrap an arm around him, and he leaned into it, rubbing his temple. “It gets bad when I try to remember it.” He muttered. 

“That’s... That’s okay, Gordon. You don’t have to keep trying for now. Get some proper rest. You need to heal.” He nodded to Darnold’s words, not opening his eyes, relaxing against Bubby’s side. Bubby wrapped his arm properly around Gordon’s shoulder, and Gordon felt himself slipping again, as Tommy once again sang a careful line of sweet voice. 

* * *

She was so small. Benrey wondered idly why she was so much smaller than the others. It wasn’t like she couldn’t be bigger, he knew that much from what Tommy and G-Man could do. Still. It worked in their favor, as she was able to wiggle in through the vents into his room. 

Benrey said nothing as she looked around, spotting the blood stained floor, from where Gordon had lay moments before. He hoped that he had done the right thing, getting him out like he had. He hoped that Tommy found him quickly. She looked to him, eyes glowing just barely in the darkness, and moved over, crouching down next to him, and handing a small water bottle to him. It was the most she could do, as per usual. 

He took it. Drank the entire thing in one go. Handed the bottle back. She looked at it, then slid it into her pocket, frowning over at the dried blood. “They won’t be happy, however you did that.” She whispered to him, and Benrey grinned, sweet voice staining his teeth in vibrant colors. She stared at them, obviously translating in her head, and, when her eyes darting back to his own, Benrey finally spoke to her. 

“Fucking bring it.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I literally giggled aloud when I wrote that scene with Benrey....


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ended up being pretty filler. I dunno why. But hey! Gordos gets some more memories!

Gordon didn’t feel as bad when he woke up again. He was still leaning against Bubby, all sharp corners as xe was, and Gordon peeked open his eyes just a bit, tilting his head to see if Bubby was asleep as well. He relaxed a bit, seeing Bubby so peaceful. His eyes darted around, landing on Tommy and Darnold curled up against each other on the floor. He smiled softly, glancing around for Coomer, but didn’t see him. 

For a moment, there was a spike of anxiety, but he heard something beep in the kitchen and relaxed. Coomer made them breakfast, he remembered that. Coomer was fine. Coomer was safe. Gordon let out a sigh, relaxing again slowly. 

G-Man seemed to just... suddenly be in the corner. Gordon’s eyes flicked over towards the black hole, who raised a hand in greeting. Of course G-Man knew that he was awake. Gordon blinked at him slowly, and G-Man blinked back, before moving through into the kitchen. Gordon closed his eyes again. 

When he opened them once more, Darnold and Tommy had gotten up, and there was conversation happening in the kitchen. Bubby was still underneath him, but the movement of his chest signaled him to be awake, rather than still asleep, waiting on him most likely. 

Gordon shifted, looking up at him, seeing Bubby half staring at something on his phone. He glanced towards Gordon, and, for a moment, they stared at each other, before Gordon snickered, and pushed himself to sit up. Bubby groaned softly, sitting up as well. “You’re heavy.” 

“And you’re sharp.” He muttered back, standing. Bubby grinned at that, standing as well and moving over to support him. His ankle still felt off, so Gordon leaned against him appreciatively, and they moved into the kitchen. 

Bubby passed Gordon off to Tommy, who guided him to a chair. Gordon smiled up at him, and Tommy smiled back, making an aborted movement with his head that had Gordon confused, but he didn’t comment on it. Tommy sat at his side, Darnold on Tommy’s other side. 

He looked back towards Coomer, who was still at the stove, G-Man leaning over it and staring down at what it was doing, head tilted slightly. Gordon watched them work, as Bubby moved over and fucked with the fire a bit, causing Coomer to smile at him. 

Gordon closed his eyes, leaning his head on the table. It didn’t hurt as much, but Gordon didn’t trust that. Picking at the wall from the past week would make it worse, he was sure, and he decided instead to pick at other parts of his life.   
What could he remember? 

He knew who he was. He knew the pets, the family in the apartment, their names, basic things. He had dumb memories of all of them, ranging from going to Dunkin Donuts with Tommy to committing arson with Bubby. None of this worried him, meaning it was probably a normal occurrence. 

So he picked. He scratched at the wall, getting more random life memories, moments between them all that just brought more questions to his mind. 

One thing stood out to him, however, had him sitting up suddenly, eyes flying open. Tommy looked at him worried, and Darnold leaned forwards, eyebrows creased together as well. He looked between them, eyes wide. “I’m... I’m dating you guys.” 

Tommy paused at this, before smiling softly, nodding. “Y-Yeah...” 

Gordon stared at him a moment, before shifting slightly, reaching his hand over towards Tommy, holding onto Tommy’s hand. “Wanna know the memory that sparked that realization?” 

Darnold shifted forwards, laying his hand on top of theirs, and Gordon shifted his pinkie up to hook against Darnold’s. “Is it dumb?” 

“Benrey woke me up one time by setting Dr. Feelgood on my chest and them mimicking her meows. I thought we had two cats when I woke up, and Tommy rolled over towards me and said ‘didn’t you know? We have Mr. Feelbad.’ and then rolled back into Darnold’s chest and fell back asleep.” 

There was a moment of silence, before someone over by the stove snorted, and Gordon grinned, suddenly finding himself pulled into a hug by Tommy, Darnold shifting forwards to wrap his arms around them. 

“I didn’t wanna say anything... just in case.” Tommy mumbled, and Gordon smiled up at him. 

“Nah, I think it’s fine. I was remembering things pretty quickly anyways.” Gordon said, tilting his head back to kiss Darnold’s chin just as Coomer set plates in front of them all, arm retracting back as he walked over to the table. 

“You can kiss him after breakfast.” Coomer stated, settling in his spot. 

There was a spot empty at the table, and the missing Benrey weighed heavy on Gordon’s soul as he realized they all pointedly did not look at the empty chair. 

Gordon knew he was the only one with the key to where he was. He knew that by tearing down that wall, he could find Benrey, but there was nothing. He couldn’t find the place to start, where to peel back the plaster and take the wall down between him and finding Benrey. 

He barely ate before feeling full, frowning at his plate. God, his stomach actually hurt a bit, thinking about it. He just... felt sick. He didn’t take another bite, even with the others shooting him worried glances, and simply leaned over to lay his head on Tommy’s shoulder. 

Tommy wrapped his arm around Gordon’s shoulders and began to eat one handed, as Gordon continued to pick at the wall, head slowly beginning to pound once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soft but also sad. Bittersweet. That's the word.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a bit of explanation for Tommy and G-Man cause it's important here: Tommy is the personified version of a star, and G-Man a black hole. G-Man wandered around the cosmos (been alive since basically the start of the universe) and found Tommy, new star, completely alone, and went to take Tommy back to other stars, since Stars are very social (forming groups that they call constellations, even if they don't form an actual constellation) and Black Holes tend to be more solitary. Tommy, however, latched onto G-Man and thus G-Man adopted a star. They both can have the effects of the planetary bodies, such as the fact that Tommy tends to glow, while G-Man sucks the light out of rooms. They have control of these abilities most of the time, but high emotion tends to make them go a bit out of wack. There's a lot more in depth idea on my tumblr and I will find and link that if you guys want it!

By the time breakfast was over, Gordon couldn’t open his eyes. His head pounded, and even the light behind his eyes hurt. Tommy kept his arm wrapped around him, frowning down at him, before carefully lifting him up and moving back into the living room. 

Despite keeping his voice quiet, Tommy calling back to the kitchen made his head hurt worse. Tommy let him curl into a ball, arms pressed against the sides of his head, before it went darker. Chancing a peek, he saw G-Man settle on the couch next to him, and closed his eyes again. The black hole stole the light around him, but not all of it, kept it dark, and Gordon appreciated it. 

He had, in his mind, taken down a good amount of the wall, except where it mattered. He remembered so much of nothing. The past week, no matter how much he picked and yanked and beat against this wall, it would not come down. It would not scratch. Gordon didn’t understand the point of that, but as his head began to burn again, he dropped it, keeping his eyes closed tightly and wrapping his arms around his middle. 

Tommy watched him quietly, from across the living room. Being a star meant light, and Gordon needed anything but. Luckily his dad seemed content to sit on the couch next to Gordon, seeping the light from the room, but even then, Tommy didn’t want to leave him. They had only just gotten him back. 

“Tommy.” His eyes flicked towards G-Man, who smiled carefully at him. “Mr. Freeman will be alright.” 

“You caught it, didn’t you?” Tommy asked, instead of following that train of thought. G-Man paused for a moment, before nodding once. “We aren’t the only ones here.” 

The residue left over by other stars sat heavy on Gordon’s skin, in his wounds, covering him completely. The water had done nothing to rid him of it, and it only solidified in Tommy’s mind that Benrey had done something to get him out. Whatever it was probably exhausted him, if he had to work to build back power like Gordon said. 

“I don’t know how to tell whose... which.” Tommy settled on, and his father seemed to understand, head inclined in a nod once more. Tommy watched quietly, as G-Man sat in silence, no doubt trying to sort through the residue like Tommy couldn’t. He had never had much interaction with other stars growing up, but G-Man had spent much longer roaming around with stars and black holes alike. 

“Four, I believe. Two... were cruel. One was kind. One... indifferent. Faint. As if only connected... by one of the others.” Tommy nodded at this. Two that hurt Gordon and Benrey, and one that helped. 

“But why?” Tommy asked softly, staring towards Gordon. “The only celestials they know are us, and... and we haven’t done anything to anyone.” 

“We have... been on earth for a long time. I do think anything... negative that either... of us have done would have... come back before this.” G-Man focused back on Tommy as he began to pace across the room. 

“So why now? And why go for them?” Tommy shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense!” 

“Hurt those close... and it will hurt you.” 

Tommy paused. That was true enough. Seeing Gordon in such a state, losing both him and Benrey in the span of a few minutes, leaving them gone for a week... It hurt. “But I haven’t done anything, Dad.” He whimpered, and G-Man sighed softly. G-Man lifted an arm, becoming Tommy close. Tommy paused for a moment, eyes darting to Gordon again, but buried himself in his father’s embrace, shaking. 

“No... perhaps you haven’t. However... people tend to hold... grudges... against ones like me.” G-Man said softly, half muffled in Tommy’s hair, and Tommy sniffled, trying not to cry too much. The light he gave off was dim enough to be swallowed by the dark of G-Man, luckily, but his tears would show up on G-Man’s clothing. “Hurting you hurts me, Tommy. And they hurt you... by hurting them.” 

Tommy sniffled again, burying his face in G-Man’s chest, as G-Man kept him close, humming a soft strange tune as Tommy cried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some stuff from Tommy's POV, and some comfort from G-Dad!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you wanna see the OCs, I can make a post on tungle of what they look like!

She wiggled through the vent carefully, pulling herself down the dark dusty metal. This was the easiest way to sneak in and out of the room without the others knowing, and Rigel was going to take advantage of that fact. 

Benrey didn’t deserve to be here. They had done nothing wrong, and Rigel knew this. Neither had the human, no one here had done anything. They weren’t even connected to the celestials that they were here for. 

They were shouting again. Rigel sighed softly, pushing her way through the vent quietly, peeking through the grate to see through. She didn’t know what they were arguing about, but the moment she heard the slap, she moved on. She had no desire to see that, not when she couldn’t help. 

Rigel could help Benrey. That’s what she held onto, even if it wasn’t a lot. The chip bag crinkled in her hoodie pocket, and she shifted her weight, hoping she hadn’t crushed it too badly by crawling through the vent. Even so, she knew Benrey wouldn’t mind. 

He hadn’t spoken to her the entire time the human was there. The human did. He was rather nice to Rigel, but... Benrey didn’t talk. Benrey would sit and glare at her from afar as she tried desperately to keep the human’s waning strength up. For awhile, she wondered if he was the only reason she was still alive, but they... when they did whatever they did, got the human out, Benrey had spoken to her

A threat against the others, for sure, but he had spoken. Rigel held that progress close. 

She pulled herself through the vent into his room, ignoring the dried blood on the floor where the human had been thrown before disappearing. Benrey said nothing, eyes boring into her. She smiled at him, drawing the bag of chips out from her pocket, carefully opening it as not to alert anyone outside. She passed it to him, and he took it carefully, not moving his eyes from her for a moment. 

When he finally looked away, inspecting the chips as she had come to expect with any food and drink she had brought them. She sat down carefully in front of him, taking him in fully. 

Arcturus had not been happy when he found only Benrey in that room. Benrey was covered in his own dried blood, a dark red that almost looked black. His eye was swollen shut, causing a third one to be formed on his cheek just under it, his lip split open in two different places. His clothing was torn in various places, show casing heavy wounds across their chest and back. From the way they held the chip bag, something was wrong with their hand, but Rigel couldn’t be certain. 

When he carefully took a chip from the bag, eating it, Rigel could see his teeth stained with sweet voice of various colors, though a lot of pain hidden there. Benrey was very good and keeping their sweet voice in check during Arcturus’s rages, and this often caused the stains that Rigel could spot. 

Benrey still watched her out of the corner of his eye. Rigel knew that. He would watch her until she left, but still. She shifted, just a bit closer, and Benrey frozen for a fraction of a second, before she opened her mouth and sang a very quiet note at him. 

Teal to green settled across his hand, and Benrey’s eyes darted down to it as it fitted back together naturally, and Rigel realized that some bone in his hand had been popped out of place, and likely broken. She leaned back, eyes downcast. She couldn’t do much more, and Rigel honestly wished she could, but helping them meant turning her back on her sibling... and that she wasn’t ready to do. 

“Sorry I can’t do more.” She whispered, and Benrey huffed a sigh, carefully folding the now empty bag and handing it back to her, so she could slide it into her pocket. They couldn’t leave any evidence that she had been in here, so she took the trash with her before leaving. 

He didn’t say anything as she stood, just watched her with careful, calculating eyes, as she pulled the vent cover off. She looked back at him again, and smiled sadly. “I’ll be back tomorrow.” He stared, before nodding, and Rigel climbed into the vent, pulling it shut with her foot, and crawling back to her little room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Benny boy!!!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a scene in here where Gordon is tortured a bit, I have italicized the start and end of it, but it does start at "His train of thought was cut off" and ends with "Gordon!" 
> 
> Stay safe <3

Gordon woke slowly, half surprised he had fallen asleep in the first place. There was a weight on his chest, not heavy, but still there, as he lay there, eyes still closed. His head still hurt, but it wasn’t that near blinding headache he had before passing out. He opened his eyes. 

The room was dark, almost monochrome. He blinked, frowning at it, then looked down to his chest, where a hairless cat, Dr. Feelgood, he presumed, perched carefully on his chest, rumbling a loud purr. He smiled at him, shifting his hand up to pet down his back, before pausing, hand hovering over Dr. Feelgood’s back. 

He set it back by his side as he remembered that... petting Dr. Feelgood when he didn’t want to be pet was basically a death sentence. He shifted just barely, careful not to disturb the sleeping cat, tilting his head back slightly to look behind him. 

Upside down as it was, Gordon could see Tommy, head laying in G-Man’s lap. G-Man had a hand in Tommy’s hair, and Tommy seemed to be sleeping, though Gordon frowned at the dried tears on Tommy’s face. He shifted his head back down to look up towards G-Man, to find that G-Man was watching him back. 

“Feeling... better, Dr. Freeman?” G-Man asked in that careful way, and Gordon sighed, nodding slightly. 

“Better... ish? Head still hurts, but that’s probably going to be my norm for awhile.” He sighed softly, rubbing at his eyes carefully, before looking towards his right hand. “Do we know what happened to my hand?” He asked. 

“In... what way, Dr. Freeman?” 

“Uh, in the, I had a prosthetic and right now I don’t.” He shrugged. “I dunno if I wanna remember what happened to it to make me need one yet.” 

G-Man sighed softly. “I am afraid... that it was lost... with you.” 

“I was afraid of that.” Gordon muttered, shaking his head. He dropped his arm back to his side, staring at Dr. Feelgood in the mean time. Bubby would be upset, xe had spent a long time on that, though Gordon doubted he would mind making a new one too much if they couldn’t salvage his. He yawned again, then frowned at that, shaking his head. 

“Sleep is... a requirement for healing, Dr. Freeman. You have gone through quite the... ordeal. Rest.” G-Man shifted, and Gordon found himself suddenly with his head in G-Man’s lap as well. He sighed softly, closing his eyes again. It wasn’t normal that G-Man was affectionate with him, Benrey, or Darnold, so he simply settled against him, letting himself drift off again. 

* * *

The ground was hard and cold, and, despite the fact that Rigel had managed to snag him some food, it was almost a full day from then, and hunger clawed at his stomach. He ignored this, of course. Complaining would do nothing, and it’s not like anyone he could complain to would be able to change it or care. 

Benrey was on the other side of the room, held there by... something. Gordon wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but he knew that Benrey, in the state they were, couldn’t cross it. Gordon had no chance against it. It burned when he got too close, like standing on the pavement barefoot on a warm day, and, if he tried to touch it, it was as if he slammed his hand full force onto an oven top, burning the skin where he touched 

So instead of trying and hurting himself further, he and Benrey sat across the room from each other, Benrey singing out lines of sweet voice carefully, letting them sizzle and pop against the barrier, and Gordon tried to learn to decipher it. It was slow going, but the only way to pass the time in this little room. 

They weren’t separated forever. Usually only during the day time, when it was more likely one of them would come wandering in, and Benrey could do nothing but watch as Gordon- 

The door creaked open. Gordon’s heart stopped, and the sizzling of the sweet voice fell silent as Benrey tamped it down, hiding that emotion, staring flat at the person who came in. 

Gordon focused on his eyes, the empty white void he had there instead of anything else. He was tall, nearly as tall as Tommy, if Gordon had to guess, but used it on purpose, keeping himself towering over everyone else. He also had a faint glow around him, reflecting off the near pure white of his hair. He wasn’t even trying to hide what he was, which made it all the worse. 

Tommy had said before that stars were usually more social, tended to be kinder to smaller creatures like humans (Gordon had bristled slightly at the time, but when you were dating a star, it wasn’t hard to see how small you really were), so knowing that a star, a group of them, had been driven to this, just scared Gordon. Tommy had also told him that they could be the most brutal of existence if crossed. 

Seeing as Gordon only knew Tommy and G-Man as celestials, he wasn’t sure how he had crossed them. 

Acrturus, he had said his name was, crossed carefully, as Gordon stared carefully at him, pressed against the wall. He had come in before, the first day they were there, which... Gordon wasn’t sure how long it had been. Acrturus didn’t exactly let him keep his phone after all. 

Still, as he crouched down in front of Gordon, Gordon doing his best to appear fearless in the face of this man, Gordon knew that it was going to be bad. Arcturus didn’t often come in, leaving this to the other, he never caught it’s name. 

_His train of thought was cut off as a hand wrapped_ around his throat, only touching his skin with the pads of his fingers. Gordon stayed still, didn’t even swallow, staring instead into the white void of Arcturus’s eyes. 

There was a moment of silence, as Benrey shifted closer to the barrier on his side, and then the fire started. 

It was sudden, and so Gordon had no chance to stop himself from flinching, He bit down on his tongue, refusing to give him the satisfaction, as the fingers placed so carefully on his neck heated, burning the flesh with a sickening smell. 

So careful, so dedicated, and Gordon screwed his eyes shut, biting harder on his tongue, tasting blood as the flame refused to let up. There was no real fire, of course, but what else did he have? The warmth of a star wasn’t meant to be brought so close to a human’s skin, an Arcturus had figured this out quickly. 

When Arcturus finally pulled his hand away, Gordon’s skin almost stuck to his fingers, and he made a soft noise at it, disgusted, and wiped it on Gordon’s already dirty shirt. Gordon slowly unclenched his jaw, opening his eyes to glare towards Arcturus. 

The knife flicked between his fingers, and Gordon’s eyes moved towards it for a fraction of a second. While the unnamed had a favor for using it’s hands to hurt them, Arcturus favored the knife, at least with them. 

In a flash, the burning hand had grabbed his right arm, pinning it to the wall behind him. Gordon jerked, trying to pull it away as the knife connected to his arm, along the inside of it, dragging it across his arm. 

He bit down on his tongue, chancing a glance, but knowing that Arcturus had missed the vein. It was a relief, but only a small one in this scenario, as he dragged the knife down his arm, stopping at the elbow. It was almost with curiosity that he did this, before pressing the knife back into the middle of the wound and sinking it through. 

This finally broke Gordon, and he cried out, head turning away from it, the vision of the knife sinking into his arm so easily burned into his mind. He heard Benrey faintly, and Arcturus just laughed. 

It stopped pushing through, and Arcturus frowned slightly, pressing a bit harder, before pulling his arm up instead, pushing the knife completely through Gordon’s arm. He hummed softly, carefully pulling it out and letting his arm bleed down across the wall as he pinned it there with one hand, wiping the knife on Gordon’s pants, before pausing it there. Gordon tensed just barely, seconds before Acrturus sunk it down into his thigh, and Gordon’s head thunked back against the wall as he cried out again. 

Arcturus paused, knife wedged deep into his leg, before grinning, holding the handle. Gordon couldn’t help the sob as the knife warmed in his flesh, stopping the bleeding, but almost cooking the meat of his thigh from the inside. 

Gordon continued to sob as it only heated further, too much, as Arcturus slowly dragged the knife through his thigh, bringing it up a bit to make the cut a bit shallower as he did and- 

_“Gordon!”_

He sat up suddenly, tears streaking down his face, hand first coming to his right arm, finding it bandaged, before patting as his thigh, panting as he did. Tommy caught his hand, shifting up and settling in front of him. Darnold pressed against his back a moment later, and Gordon sobbed, shaking, wrapping his arm around Tommy. 

“Nightmare?” He heard Darnold ask, and Gordon hiccuped a sob, shaking his head. 

“M-Memory.” He whimpered, shaking. 

Tommy pulled back, holding him by the shoulders. “Memory?” 

Gordon nodded, bring his hand up to his throat, shaking. “Are there....” He didn’t finish the sentence, but Tommy carefully pulled his hand away, eyes going wide as he realized-

“There’s.... burn marks.” Darnold whispered, and Gordon broke again, sobbing into Tommy’s chest. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I worried for a sec that I was being too tame and then went 'yeah no, no, I'm not.' so uhhh :) 
> 
> For anyone who skipped it: Main thing is you meet Arcturus, one of his captors, who favors a knife and his abilities as a star to hurt. Hence the burn marks.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing without pronouns is harder than I expected, so uh, please tell me if I fucked up and referred to G-Man by a pronoun.

Gordon curled, sandwiched between Tommy and Darnold on the floor. Harold, during the time they had slid down to the floor, had draped a blanket over them so Gordon could calm down again. Bubby has constructed a long straw out of many smaller ones in an attempt to get Gordon water without him having to sit up. The end sat in a water bottle behind Tommy. Gordon hadn’t taken a sip, instead pressing his face in Tommy’s chest, clinging onto Darnold’s arm where it wrapped around his middle. 

Harold watched from the kitchen doorway quietly, leaning against the wall. The moment that Gordon had found out about those burn marks, he had freaked, sobbing hysterically and falling into a horrible panic attack. It took Tommy and Darnold a good amount of time to calm him back down, and even now, he wasn’t fully calm. Tommy was still humming to him softly, stroking his hair, and even then, Harold could see the way Gordon’s chest hitched as he hiccuped softly.

He turned away, moving into the kitchen properly, where Bubby sat at the table, head buried in xyr arms. Harold moved over to him, pulling the chair next to him out, draping an arm over him carefully. Bubby leaned into it’s chest, but said nothing, still quiet, arms moving to wrap around xyr chest carefully. Harold shifted slightly closer to hug xem, and gently leaned it’s head onto his. 

So they sat. Near silence, only the faint noise from the headphones bundled on the table playing something Harold couldn’t identify. For a few minutes, that was all there was.  
And then G-Man was behind him. Harold tilted his head back a bit, and G-Man smiled, placing a hand on Harold’s shoulder. Harold shifted, moving on arm free, reaching it back to drag G-Man into the hug. This brought Bubby’s attention, though he didn’t unwrap his arms from his sides, just leaned a bit closer to G-Man.  
G-Man sighed softly, but still wrapped them up in a careful hug. There was another paused, before G-Man pulled away. “I found... no traces of... Benrey.” G-Man murmured, and Harold nodded sadly. 

“Gordon had a pretty bad memory. He won’t tell use what it was, but he woke up a little bit after you woke up in hysterics. He hasn’t spoken a word that was intelligible the entire time since.” Harold sighed softly, pressing a kiss to the top of Bubby’s head. “They got him as calm as they could, but I still don’t think he’s okay. Whatever they did to him during that time...” 

G-Man nodded carefully, one hand smoothing down Harold’s hair, oh so carefully. Harold had noticed that G-Man was always careful, overly so. He shook off the thought for now, looking up towards G-Man, who was turned towards the living room, head tilted as if listening. Harold fell silent as well, listening, but heard nothing out of the ordinary. G-Man must’ve heard something, however, as G-Man shifted, turning and walking into the living room. 

Harold sighed softly, carefully pulling Bubby back and up, Bubby pressing against his side as they walked into the living room. When they walked in, Harold was presently surprised to find that the group had sat up, and that Gordon was sipping at the water with the comically long straw that Bubby constructed. It managed to get a smile out of them, and Harold was glad to see that Gordon wasn’t shaking nearly as badly as he had been when it had last seen him. 

They sat carefully on the couch, and, after a moment, Tommy and Darnold managed to get Gordon up and moved back onto the couch, though he clung tightly to both of them, arm around Darnold and hand clutching onto Tommy’s wrist. The water bottle sat between his feet, and he took sips from the comically large straw on occasion. 

“I found... nothing, unfortunately. But this does mean... he is still alive. Luckily.” G-Man hummed, and Gordon nodded slowly, letting the straw fall from his mouth, though it hovered for a second before slumping over under the weight of itself into Darnold’s lap. 

“Acrturus.” He said softly, and G-Man started, turning to look towards him. “That was one of their names. Arcturus. He uh... He didn’t come in often, I know that, but when he did, he preferred knives or using uh...” His hand came up to his neck again, tracing the spot where the burns had been. 

“He’s a star, isn’t he?” Tommy asked softly, and Harold’s eyes flicked down towards Tommy’s hand, where it clenched on his thigh, glow on that side getting brighter, but the side with Gordon, the side holding his hand, stayed dark. Harold shifted back slightly, eyes turning back towards G-Man, who nodded to Tommy’s question. 

“We can... guess from there... what he favored.” G-Man said carefully, eyes darting down to Tommy’s glowing side, and then back to Gordon, who grinned, tears beginning to build back up. 

“The worst part is... I know that wasn’t the worst that they did. He wasn’t the bad one. I don’t know it’s name, but I know that it was worse than him.” He was quiet, shaking his head. “Other than that, and the fact that Benrey and I were separated by something, I got... I got nothing else.” 

Tommy wrapped an arm around him, pulling him, and by extension Darnold, closer, and Darnold pushed the comically long straw back up to Gordon’s mouth. He didn’t do anything for a moment, before carefully taking a drink, eyes closing as his hands began to shake again.  
“That must be why it’s... harder to break through... these memories. Either your own subconscious... or Benrey himself... blocked them a bit more. For whatever reason.” Gordon nodded at this, but kept his eyes closed, sniffling softly. 

“What do we do?” Bubby asked softly, lifting his head from Harold’s shoulder. Harold frowned, tightening his grip. 

“Me and... Tommy keep looking. Gordon, as much as I... hate to ask this of you-” 

“I have to keep picking. If I get anything, I can help.” Gordon said softly, nodding. 

“Of course. However, I do ask you... stay with someone when you do. If you are... still this scared after... nearly an hour. And this wasn’t the worst... I hate to see what you would be like any other time.” Tommy lifted a hand, brushing Gordon’s hair back carefully. 

Gordon nodded, leaning his head into Tommy’s hand, and G-Man sighed softly, standing. 

“I will... head back out. I’ll return in another... hour or so.” G-Man glanced to Tommy, and something passed between them, something Harold couldn’t exactly tell, but after it passed, G-Man was gone. Tommy turned towards Harold, eyes glowing. 

“Dr. Coomer... would you, uh, mind making food? For Gordon?” Harold smiled at him, and carefully shifted Bubby off it’s chest. Bubby, for xer credit, simply shifted across the couch to lean on Tommy’s other side, the only other one in the room now that could handle the heightened temperature that he was giving off. 

“Of course Tommy.” A task. He could do that. Easy enough. As he stepped into the kitchen, Harold glanced back, seeing Gordon’s tear filled eyes meet his for a moment, and Harold hoped to whatever God there was, if there was one, that this wouldn’t get worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love very obvious foreshadowing.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tommy Chapter babey!! I dunno, I wrote this real quick before going to bed, and I kinda like it! Also totally not just an elaborate plot to introduce Canopus, no-

Tommy stood at the end of the trail, water lapping at his shoes. Here was where Gordon woke up. There was the faintest of trail of Benrey here, but nothing concrete enough to follow. G-Man had said it was too faint, but Tommy wanted to see for himself. Get out of the house a bit, away from the hell in the apartment. 

Gordon wouldn’t eat. He barely drank water, and only through the straw contraption that Bubby had made, which made some sense, but was still worrisome. Gordon’s memories were coming back slowly, but each minute passing meant another minute they were hiding, that they could be hurting Benrey too. 

He just... needed a moment to get away from it all. Just a moment to stand at the edge of the river and stare into the murky water, watch as it soaked through his pant legs, his sneakers completely submerged under the water. He must have taken a few steps in, or the tide had risen to meet him. 

At that moment, his head snapped up. There was something there. Faint, but there. It wasn’t the same trail, no, but Tommy knew what it was. The trail had been on Gordon after all. It wasn’t one that had hurt him, but the indifferent. 

Tommy knew he wasn’t subtle, trudging out of the river in broad daylight and following the trail, but he wasn’t trying to be. He had to find this celestial, he had to see them for himself, had to know who stood by while Gordon was hurt. 

A small coffee shop, hidden on the corner was where it was strongest, and, after stamping off the excess water from his shoes, he stepped in, eyes darting around. No one stood out to him, as he remained as inconspicuous as possible, standing near the back and squinting at the menu as if trying to decide what he wanted. 

“Canopus?” 

There. Them. They stood carefully, grabbing a tray of four drinks, smiling in thanks, and, after they left, Tommy turned and followed quickly, just behind them as they walked down the street, head resolutely forwards. He had no clue if they knew he was there or not, but it didn’t matter. Following them meant finding where they were, and thus finding Benrey. 

They turned down a street. Tommy followed, and watched as they disappeared down an alley. Stopping at the same alley way, he carefully peeked in, watched as they shifted the drinks to one hand, carefully pulling out a phone, sending someone a text, before- 

The world ripped open in front of him, and they stepped through, sealing the crack into nothing once more. 

It was so obvious? Why had they not realized before? A pocket dimension, where they could control everything, every variable that could exist. They could drain Benrey of his powers easily, keep him weak. 

Tommy stepped into the same alleyway, using the same technique to step through back into the apartment. His dad stared at him, as Tommy didn’t often use such obvious ways of transportation. Gordon, from the couch, squinted at him. His head must still hurt. 

He moved over to Gordon first, carefully kneeling in front of him and singing a line of teal to green, letting it sink into his skin and Gordon relaxed, closing his eyes. Darnold, who had Gordon’s head in her lap, hand in his hair, smiled in thanks. Tommy smiled back, then looked towards G-Man.   
“Pocket dimension.” 

And watched the realization slot into his dad’s eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canopus! There they are!   
> If you're keeping up, we have Canopus (they/them), Arcturus (he/him) and Rigel (she/her) which leaves the final star (whose uses it/its) still hidden from the group. I'll let you know I used major star names for all of them, so see if you can guess it's name!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hewwo! I didn't like doing this chapter, but it was important to get through to the next point. I dunno what it was, but this boy did just not wanna come out. It's here now though!

“We’ll explain it when we get back.” Tommy said, carefully kissing Darnold’s forehead, leaning down a bit to do the same to Gordon. “But this may be our only chance.” Darnold nodded slightly, as G-Man tore a rip through the universe, and Tommy stepped through carefully, ending up in the alley he had been moments before. G-Man stepped through behind him, eyes darting around quietly. 

G-Man was quiet, carefully moving over to the spot where they had disappeared. Tommy watched quietly, before the area froze around them, the noise stopping, time stopping. G-Man turned to him, eyes glowing softly. “It’s here. I have the... feeling they use this place often.” 

“So if we camp out here?” 

“We might... catch them. But they may also... catch us.” 

Tommy sighed softly, leaning against the wall, frowning. “Which would cause them to move it and we lose them. But if we don’t...” 

“We still... have nothing.” G-Man moved over to him, place a hand on his shoulder carefully. Tommy brought his hand up, holding onto G-Man’s wrist, frowning down at the sidewalk. He was the only color still around at the moment, bright yellow sneakers standing out against the grey of the sidewalk. 

“So... do we take that chance?” He asked softly, and G-Man said nothing for a moment, before sighing. 

“We should... talk to the others first. Then decide. We know where... this is until then.” 

Tommy nodded, pushing himself off the wall again, as time resumed, the noise just outside the alley started again. “Let’s get back then.” 

* * *

Gordon felt them return before they actually did. Spending time around celestials using that transportation method meant that Gordon felt the air shift, the way it moved around them all to make room for the temporal displacement of Tommy and G-Man returning. He opened his eyes just in time to catch it tear open in the living room, Tommy stepping through, eyes focused in on him. 

He moved over to them, settling next to Darnold. Gordon sat up from having his head in her lap, then shifted over, so he was laying across both of them. He heard Darnold laugh, and smiled softly to himself, looking up at Tommy, who smiled sadly back down at him. 

G-Man stepped into the kitchen, the tear resealing itself as G-Man left, and brought back Coomer and Bubby, who settled on the other side of the couch, around the bend, situating G-Man between them. For a moment, no one said anything, before Gordon shifted again, staring up at Tommy. 

“So. Pocket dimensions? Let’s start there.” 

Tommy nodded, but took a moment to collect his thoughts, idly playing with Gordon’s hair. He had been able to take a shower while Tommy was gone, so his hair was rather soft, which Gordon hoped helped Tommy a bit. 

“So, uh... a pocket dimension is pretty much what you would assume? It’s a little area separate from the universe that is your domain. Every celestial has one, and it grants us near- almost total control of the, uh, the environment.” He hummed softly. 

“Other... celestials may be able to enter... and exit as they please. However, the... control... remains yours. You have limited control... over the other celestials... in the dimension as well.” G-Man sighed softly. “Of course, humans... enhanced... various others... are near useless in an battle situation... within the dimension. Who ever controls... that area... has the upper hand. Always.” 

“Benrey counts, I think, as a celestial, despite the fact that he isn’t one, which is how he was able to get you out, Gordon.” Gordon nodded slowly, frowning along to this. 

“So... Whoever has control of the dimension is the leader of the group, I assume?” Darnold asked, and G-Man nodded carefully. 

“I do not... know which it is, though it was not... who you saw today, Tommy.” Tommy nodded slightly. 

“Didn’t think so. I have my own ideas of who it is based on what you’ve remembered, Gordon, but I’m still... not entirely sure.” He went back to playing with Gordon’s hair, though did separate one hand to hold onto Darnold’s, while Darnold herself grabbed onto Gordon’s hand, linking them all together. 

“So... what do we do?” Gordon asked softly, and Tommy frowned, looking away. 

“We... are at a cross roads here. We know the main entrance, but since me and dad aren’t connected to it, we can’t get in unless invited. Think, uh, like... vampires, except we, we only need the permission once, and it has to be revoked for us to no longer be able to come in. Humans don’t need that, and they can invite us in once in.” Tommy looked down at Gordon, who was frowning slightly as he focused on a spot just past Tommy’s head to listen. 

“The problem comes in... that we can’t sit outside it... and wait. They will know. They will also know... if one of you do so, but only after... they step out, and only if... you’re obvious.” G-Man shifted back, leaning against Coomer’s arm, giving it the chance to wrap it’s other arm around G-Man’s middle. Bubby leaned against G-Man’s other side, holding an arm around xymself on purpose. “If they know... they will move the entrance... be more cautious. We will lose them. If we don’t sit... and watch... we’re back to square one.” 

They fell into silence, as this settled in on them. Neither option was perfect, but no one else seemed able to think of anything else. 

“So...” Darnold spoke up nervously, fiddling with Gordon’s sleeve as she did. “If... if we got in. Would we be able to do or say something that meant you two could also get in?” Tommy frowned, then nodded slightly. 

“Yeah... But I don’t... I don’t...” He frowned, curling in on himself a bit, though with Gordon on his lap, there wasn’t really a place to hide. 

“I know it’s not ideal, Tommy but... if one of us got captured on purpose, hung around the area, got pulled in, then got you two your way in, we would be able to save Benrey, and you would be able to save whichever of us got stuck there.” Darnold wrapped her arm around Tommy’s shoulder, and Tommy nodded slightly, slowly dragging a hand through Gordon’s hair. 

“I just... don’t want anyone else hurt like this.” He whimpered, and Darnold nodded in understanding, as G-Man untangled from Bubby and Coomer to be able to move over, wrap an arm around Tommy on the other side, over the arm of the couch. Bubby shifted down to Darnold’s other side, Coomer following behind G-Man, but pausing to crouch down in front of Tommy. 

“It’s not perfect... But we can do it.” Darnold smiled softly, and Tommy nodded again. “I’ll do it even.” Tommy’s head flew up, eyes wide, and Darnold brought her hand up, though Gordon still held onto her wrist. “Calm down. Like I said. You’ll be able to get in, and I’m not putting Gordon through that again. Besides. I’ll be able to access how quickly we need to move to get Benrey out based on injuries, though I assume it’s going to be ASAP anyways.” 

As much as no one liked it, Darnold made a good point, and Tommy shifted, clinging onto Darnold. Bubby frowned, pressing against her back lightly. “This... is a stupid plan.” 

G-Man sighed, standing carefully. “Unfortunately... it’s the only one we have.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahhh. I love being evil.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !! I am... in love with this chapter, just saying!

It was a quaint little coffee shop. One that none of them had seen before, though simply by having never been in the area. It was one of those places Tommy loved to take them all on dates, when they would hold a table for hours, only keeping from annoying the employees too much by getting drinks often, or cake pops that they had hidden. 

Of course, Darnold was here alone this time, one simple coffee set in front of her at the two person table, book up to her face. She wasn’t reading anything on the pages, unfortunately, but still turned the pages carefully as if she was. This is where she would sit for the moment, as it was the only place that any of them knew that the other stars would go. 

Hopefully they were right and they would come back. Darnold certainly hoped so. She also let herself hope that this would all be over soon enough, so they could come back here, make better memories than this, sitting here in silence and hoping that Benrey was still okay enough for this little trap to be worth it. 

Someone in the corner of her eye entered the shop. She barely glanced over, but they froze, before turning and leaving again. Darnold said nothing, hoping that that didn’t mean they knew and were going to leave, move spots, ruin this on the second day of trying to get them in. 

Three page turns later, someone sat down in the chair across from her. She didn’t look up for a moment, but lowered the book carefully, eyes darting towards it. 

It wasn’t the same person that had come in before. She knew that well enough. It stared back at her quietly, eyes narrowed, before the world went grey around them. Darnold’s eyes flicked across it’s face, noting the bruise blooming across it’s cheek. Yellow eyes bored into her, and finally, finally, she made eye contact. 

“Capella.” Careful, measured. It knew what it was doing giving it’s name to her. Darnold simply smiled back. 

“Darnold.” She replied instead, setting her book down on the table in front of her, pushing the forgotten coffee to the side in order to do it. Capella stared at her quietly, unblinking. Darnold simply stared back. She was used to G-Man’s slightly off existence, not to mention she was dating Tommy. It wasn’t like the unblinking thing freaked her out anymore. 

Capella frowned after a moment, seeming to realize this, and sat back, pushing it’s feet against the table legs to balance on the back two. “So. Who knows you’re here.”

At this Darnold looked away, trying to look nervous. It must have worked, as the chair clunked back to the ground. 

“No one?” Capella seemed to purr, and Darnold glared at it, halfheartedly, then shifted to look closer, eyes focusing on the bruise on it’s face. 

“Are you alright?” Capella jerked back, eyes going wide. “I mean, that looks pretty bad. I thought that... stars could heal that sort of thing.” Darnold tilted her head slightly, almost innocently, and Capella glared at her. 

“Fuck off.” 

“It was just a question. I didn’t... mean to upset you.” Not to that extent at least. Darnold wondered idly if stars could fix damage done by other stars. Maybe that was it. Dissent in the ranks perhaps? Or... something worse. She shook it off, and Capella leaned forwards again. 

“Is this a negotiation? For your little abomination back?” Control. That’s what it wanted here, but even so, the name that it gave Benrey brought a tidal wave of anger. 

“Perhaps the people of earth see you as the abomination.” She said instead of screaming, lifting her cup to take a sip carefully. “I know they aren’t, however.”

Capella seemed to give up then, standing and grabbing Darnold’s arm with a burning grip, dragging her bodily from the seat. The coffee teetered for a moment, but steadied, as it and the book were left behind. Darnold stumbled behind it for a moment, but managed to find her footing, putting up a struggle, though knowing that she couldn’t break free from it’s grasp. She was dragged through the portal, all without Capella noticing Bubby and Coomer stationed across the street. 

It dragged her through, and she stumbled into a building, almost warehouse like. Her eyes darted around quickly, trying to take everything in at once, trying to see it all, in order to tell them later, as Capella dragged her through the building. 

“Acrturus! Guess what I found!” It called, and stopped just outside a door. When it opened, Capella didn’t go in, but instead, Arcturus stepped out carefully. With the pure white eyes, Darnold couldn’t tell who he was looking at, but she knew it wasn’t good, even before the grin split across his face. 

“Oh wonderful. Looks like you haven’t failed me after all.” It hit Darnold all at once, eyes flickering between them, but she didn’t speak, as Arcturus carefully cupped Capella’s face, right over the bruise the same size. “Good job, darling.” He turned his head, just barely, to look at Darnold, then moved his hand from Capella’s face to hers, thumb on her chin, forcing her head up to look him in the eyes. “Another of their little group, I assume?” He asked, and Capella nodded. 

“I think so. Seemed to know the abomination.” Darnold held back the snarl, kept herself calm. Arcturus seemed to be searching for something, and whether or not he found it was something Darnold didn’t know. He simply drew back, hand falling from her face, the spot he touched burning. 

“Put them together. It might be nice to see what we’ve done to your precious nuisance.” Capella dragged her off, and Darnold stumbled to keep up with her, forcing her gaze away from him. 

When she was pushed into the room, she chose to land on her left, crashing to the floor, hands curled around her middle. Her upper arm, where Capella had held her, also burned, and, when Capella left, and Darnold sat up to look, the cloth of her dress melted against her skin. 

“Darnold?” 

At the sound of her name, her eyes flicked up to the corner, catching the barely glowing eyes of Benrey huddled there. The damage looked extensive, as Benrey’s clothing was mostly covered in blood, the original color lost at this point. His left eyes was swollen shut, though a second peeked out from under it, granting him the normal full range of sight. His lip was split, nose at an odd angle. They were favoring one arm, curling it close to their chest, and, when Darnold got a closer look as she moved towards them, there was bone peeking from the skin, around which had been sweet voice healed. One leg was tucked under daem, the other stretched out in front of daem, covered in various burns and cuts. It seemed a theme with them, the burning. 

“Hey.” Darnold kept her voice soft, settling next to daem carefully, wiping away a tear before it could fall properly, Benrey turning his head to look at her. 

“How... You shouldn’t be here.” He muttered, and Darnold smiled, reaching into her pocket. 

“Yes I should. I did this on purpose.” Out from her pocket came a vial. Inside was two liquids stacked on top of one another. The bottom was dark, sucking in the light around it, while the top was bright and shining. “I can get the others in here, and Tommy and G-Man aren’t gonna be powerless cause they were... invited. This was a trap and they fell right into it.” 

Benrey stared at the liquids quietly, eyes wide. "Is that...” Darnold nodded slightly, lifting the little vial a bit closer to Benrey’s face, so that he could see G-Man and Tommy’s blood begin to mix within.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And finally! Capella!!!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this is kinda short, but that's alright! Just a lil updating on what's going on and where everything is!

As the world returned to color, the two felt their bodies unfreeze, as the world resumed around them. Despite being frozen, they had been aware the entire time, watched as Darnold was dragged through the portal into the other world. Bubby kept xyr eyes on the alley for a moment, but no one seemed to notice anything. Harold sighed softly, then stood, Bubby following moments later. 

They went across and got her book before going home. 

Harold pushed open the door, eyes darting to the couch, where Gordon lay on Tommy’s chest, the two of them sleeping quietly. G-Man sat carefully on the other side of the couch, cutting Tommy’s glow down to a more tolerable level, as it was obvious his emotions were causing him to lose control of, at the very least, that. 

The small burn on the floor showed it wasn’t the only thing that Tommy was losing control of, though, Bubby couldn’t fault him for that. He wasn’t the only one in the house with powers that fluctuated with emotions. 

G-Man looked up as they entered. There was a pause, as Bubby shut the door behind him with a sharp click, and G-Man nodded. “She’s been taken?” 

“Didn’t take long. Wasn’t the same person that Tommy saw, I don’t think.” Harold said, setting Darnold’s book carefully on the coffee table, and sat down next to G-Man. Bubby hovered, full of too much nervous energy to sit. “Also not Arcturus from Gordon’s first memory.” 

Gordon had gotten a few more memories of that week, all short usually panic inducing. He had also stopped telling them what happened at all, no ideas of what was wrong, though they could guess as his hands found injuries, as if checking them to confirm what he had seen was real. 

“I do not... believe that he would leave. His own dimension. It’s obvious... that he’s the one in control.” G-Man wrapped an arm around Harold, eyes tracking Bubby as he paced in front of the TV, chewing on his thumbnail. 

“Will you know?” Bubby asked, despite having asked that same question multiple times. G-Man nodded patiently, and Bubby nodded along, still pacing back and forth. “Still don’t like it.” 

“I know.” 

They fell silent. The only noise was Gordon’s stuffy breathing from the side, as the two of them slept on. Eventually, Bubby sat on G-Man’s other side, leaning his head onto G-Man’s shoulder, closing his eyes, arms wrapped around himself, and thus, began to wait. 

* * *

“Take it for a second.” Darnold said softly, and Benrey lifted a hand, carefully taking it and pressing against his chest, as Darnold rolled up one of the sleeves of her dress, revealing writing across her forearm in what seemed to be silver sharpie. Benrey raised an eyebrow, and Darnold laughed softly. “Tommy.” 

“Of course.” He murmured, and Darnold took the vial once more, shaking it carefully. Benrey raised an eyebrow as she did, and she held out her arm for them to read. Benrey’s eyes gazed over the silver writing in Tommy’s familiar handwriting, including the little heart periods that he used. Benrey found himself smiling, and Darnold snickered, uncorking the vial carefully. 

“He thought you’d be happy to see that.” Darnold said softly, dipping a finger into the mixed blood, which glowed and went dark intermittently, almost memorizing as it did. “When I’m done, can I move you over to hide it? It’s not exactly hard to see with it glowing like this.” Benrey nodded, watching as Darnold dragged the bloodied finger alone the wall, eyes darting down to her arm every once in awhile to follow the guideline of what to do. 

Benrey watched quietly, as Darnold slowly got through the sigil, recorking the bottle and wiping the excess blood off her finger onto the floor near Benrey. Then, carefully as not to disturb what, with closer inspection, looked like a dislocated knee, not to mention the other injuries Darnold probably couldn’t see, they shifted over, Benrey covering the slightly glowing mark. 

“It’ll take a minute to work, I think, but, until then. I’m here.” Darnold held onto Benrey’s hand, smiling, and Benrey smiled sadly back, pulling her closer long enough to press a careful kiss to her forehead. 

“No... you’re not.” And Darnold felt her head light on fire. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> <3 Don't kill me <3


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have I mentioned how much I love Darnold? Because I love her so much.

She woke on the riverbank. The vial had broken, leaking it’s contents onto her and the ground around her, though it wasn’t important anymore. The water wasn’t high enough to reach her, she realized, sitting up, glancing around quietly, eyebrows furrowed. The sky was dark, though just getting there, as if the sun had just set moments before she woke. 

The most important thing, however, was that Darnold remembered. 

Struggling for just a moment, she managed to get up, a little unsteady on her feet, before breaking into a run, ignoring that fact that she was trailing glowing blood behind her as she did. Home. She had to get home, had to be sure it worked. Why did Benrey send her out that quickly? 

She skidded to a stop outside the apartment building, bouncing up the stairs. There was a bright flash of pain as she knocked her arm into the doorway, and she was very painfully reminded of the burn on her upper arm. That could be dealt with in a moment, inside. 

The door was locked at first, and, as she tried to find her key to open in, Tommy opened the door, glowing tears streaked down his face, which was openly shocked to see her. His eyes darted down, first to the burn on her arm, and then to the glowing stain on the front pocket of her dress. He stepped to the side, letting her slip into the room, eyes darting around. 

They were all here. All fine, awake, and Darnold smiled softly, panting from the exertion of running so far, wiping the tears from her eyes at the burning pain in her arm. Tommy pulled her over to the couch carefully, sitting her down carefully. “What happened?” 

“I did what you told me to. Drew the sigil, Benrey got a little kick out of seeing the writing on my arm like you thought, positioned him in front of it, to hide it is what I told him.” Tommy nodded, smiling, pulling Darnold into a hug. Soon enough, she was surrounded on all sides, though when someone accidentally brushed against her arm, she hissed, jerking it back quickly. The hug ended quickly after that, Tommy focusing on the burn. 

“So... we just... wait.” G-Man said softly, and Darnold nodded slightly. “How did you... return... so quickly?” 

“That was Benrey. I don’t know how he did it without locking my memory like he had to with Gordon, but I’m glad he didn’t. I don’t know if I would have gotten back nearly as fast as I did if he had to.” Tommy lifted his head at that, frowning slightly. 

“Dad, isn’t there... isn’t there a tracking... thing?” He frowned at his own wording, but G-Man seemed to understand anyways. 

“Yes. Some... stars... hold the capability... to add a track on someone... based on their own awareness of it... Perhaps locking... Gordon’s memory... was a way to hide him from that track.” 

Darnold frowned slightly. “And they didn’t get the chance to do that with me... So Benrey just needed me to be out long enough to get me out of the pocket dimension.” 

Tommy nodded, and then apologized softly as he carefully peeled bits of the fabric from Darnold’s skin, singing lines of sweet voice as he did to dull the pain a bit. Gordon, pressed against Darnold’s other side, let Darnold cling to him as the pain spiked here and there. 

“How long do we wait?” Bubby asked from the floor, where he and Coomer had fallen after the hug, neither bother to get up from that. 

“Depends... how long they wait.” G-Man replied, and Bubby growled softly at that, curling against Coomer’s side carefully. 

“Hate waiting games like this.” He muttered, and G-Man nodded carefully. 

So they sat again, in silence but for Darnold’s occasional noise of pain and Tommy’s following apology, before Coomer stood, dragging Bubby up with it. “Food. We should eat something.” And stepped into the kitchen, Bubby following behind to keep an eye on it, just in case. G-Man watched them leave for a moment, before getting up to follow, leaving Darnold, Gordon, and Tommy on the couch. 

For another moment, none of them said anything, before Gordon asked what both he and Tommy had been wondering. “How bad is he?” 

Darnold frowned slightly, chewing on her lip. “Well... Not good. There’s at least two broken bones, dislocated knee, various cuts, bruises, and burns. He can’t move without help much anymore, and has an extra eye on his cheek because he can’t see out of his normal eye. He didn’t look bothered by any of this, but you both know how he is about hiding pain... We have to get there quickly.” 

Tommy nodded slightly, finally managing to pick the last bit of fabric from her skin, carefully singing a line of teal to green to settle across the entire burn, then slid his hand down to hold onto Darnold’s, leaning his head carefully on her shoulder. Gordon mirrored the position on Darnold’s other side, hoping that they wouldn’t be too late by the time the sigil activated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooo... you wanna leave a comment so bad... ooooo....


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo! Just a quick warning that the first bit of this chapter does have references to domestic abuse, and the second has a bit of Benrey being hurt! Stay safe <3

Rigel settled against the wall quietly, curled up in as small a ball as she could get. Canopus sat next to her, one arm wrapped around her shoulders, as they listened to the argument happening in the other room. The human that Capella had brought was gone, and Arcturus was blaming it as usual, despite the fact that everyone knew it was his orders that Capella put the human in with Benrey. 

“It wasn’t my fucking fault!” Capella’s voice, normally rather deep and gravelly, got a high pitched desperation to it as it screamed. 

“You’re the one who put it in there!” Arcturus’s voice, on the other hand, just got louder, keeping itself flat and dark. 

“You’re the one who told me to put it in there with the abomination in the first place! If anything this is your fault.” 

Rigel flicked before the sound of flesh hitting flesh even met her ears, before Capella even cried out in pain. Canopus squeezed her that much tighter, and Rigel wiped at her eyes quickly, sniffling. “Why can’t we leave?” She whispered, and Canopus sighed, trying to shield her from the continued yelling in the other room. 

“I don’t know where else we could go.” They whispered back, both of them flinching at another loud cry from Capella. 

“But you know it’s bad, don’t you? This shouldn’t be what we’re doing! It’s... it’s not right. We have no proof that the black hole did what Arcturus says!” Rigel kept her voice low, but shoved as much urgency into her tone as possible, leaking sweet voice from the corner of her mouth, which Canopus was quick to wipe away. 

“I know. He... he isn’t good, but it’s the only way I know to protect you. You know what happened to Capella’s constellation, Rigel.” Rigel sniffled again, and nodded slightly. 

“But this black hole’s just... been on earth. For ages now.” 

“That black hole might’ve taken the star from it’s constellation. We need to be careful, Rigel.” 

Canopus didn’t believe Arcturus’s believes nearly as deeply as Arcturus did. Rigel knew this. Rigel also knew that Canopus found no other way out. Their story wasn’t as bad as Capella’s, but still. Rigel just wanted away from them. 

Capella stumbled out of the room, hand to it’s cheek, finger pressed against it’s nose to stem the bleeding. Rigel kept her head down, refusing to look and see the proof of Arcturus’s cruelty. She had seen more than enough of it in the past. It stumbled past, cursing softly to itself, tears budding in it’s eyes. Rigel kept her eyes down on her knees, Canopus rubbing her arm carefully. 

Arcturus stepped out of the room, carefully healing a bruise only his knuckles, walking the other way from them, leaving Canopus and Rigel leaning against the wall in silence. 

* * *

Benrey could feel it, before Capella even got into the room. The dark energy hanging around it, the pain and fear that Benrey knew was going to be taken out on him. Unsurprisingly, he was right, and the door was lung open, and Capella stepped in. In the split second that Benrey could see it properly, he noted the bloody nose, the bruises across the side of it’s face, the bruises blooming across it’s arms, before his head was snapped back against the wall with a heavy thud as it kicked a leg out, nose cracking further under it’s boot. 

“God! Why can’t he just fucking listen to me?” It cried, and Benrey had the presence of mind to pull his back from the wall just in time for Capella to drag him up by his throat, bring it’s knee into his own dislocated one, snarling. “And why can’t you stop fucking meddling? You shouldn’t be able to do shit in here, you know.” 

Benrey grinned, and spat blood in it’s face. 

Capella paused, bringing it’s free hand up to wipe it away, eyes beginning to glow in rage, and it let him drop, landing heavily on his injured leg, unable to stop himself from crying out in pain. It brought it’s foot back, as if to kick him, before pausing, foot still pulled back, as it noticed the sigil’s glow get brighter. “What...” It paused, before it’s eyes went wide, flicking to Benrey, who grinned at up it with bloody teeth. 

It ran from the room, door open behind it, and Benrey curled in tight on themselves, grinning through the pain, as somewhere, far off from this separate plane of existence, G-Man and Tommy simultaneously realized they could get in. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mmmm, things are heating up :)


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For some unknown reason, it took me all day to write this. I dunno why, but it just didn't wanna work so I procrastinated with Among Us.

It was like an electric pulse, shooting through the back of his head. His hair stood on end for just a moment, but it was long enough for Tommy to stand, G-Man following behind quickly. The others, having no way of knowing other than them, stood with, eyes darting between them. 

“Did it work?” Gordon asked, holding onto Tommy’s arm. 

Rather than answer, Tommy tore a rift through the fabric of reality, unstable but not bad enough to completely destroy the area around them. Of course, how unstable the rift was only showed the feelings of those instead the dimension, and was not a good sign. 

“Come on.” G-Man stepped through first, and Tommy followed quickly, grabbing onto Gordon’s hand, and forming a bit of a train to get through. It wasn’t an easy ride for any of those closer to human, and Tommy would rather no have to sit in the in between for a long period of time trying to find them, when it would probably drive them completely insane. 

Luckily for them, they got through with minimal difficulties. 

An empty warehouse stood before them, crackling with an energy that the showed just how unstable the area truly was. G-Man paused, eyes darting around, finally landing on a figure standing on the other side of the room, head down, leaning against the wall. 

Tommy recognized them from the coffee shop, taking a step forwards as if to go after them, but G-Man stuck a hand out, pressing it against Tommy’s chest. “Find Benrey. I can deal... with them.” Tommy nodded, and, with a grip still on Gordon’s hand, pulled him off into one of the halls. Gordon dragged along Darnold, and, after a look from G-Man, Coomer followed. Bubby refused, staying behind with G-Man, but at that point, Tommy was too busy vaporizing doors with heat to really care. 

Gordon took charge after a moment, as he seemed to suddenly realize where he was. He dragged Tommy along, ignoring the doors that they passed, which Coomer opened with force just to be sure anyways, finally skidding to a stop in front of one already open, running into the doorway as he pushed the door open wider to reveal the room. 

* * *

Rigel scrambled through the vents, as quickly as she could manage, not caring if she made noise as she did. They could get in, the one place Arcturus promised they would never get in, that was safe.

Though, was anywhere really safe with Arcturus? 

She fumbled her way out of the vent, eyes darting around, finding Benrey curled up on his side next to the glowing sigil. His back was glowing as well, meaning he must have been pressed against it, the only way for none of them to have noticed it. 

Rigel was more concerned with the fact that he wasn’t moving. She scrambled over, one hand hovering over his shoulder, before grabbing and shaking. “Benrey! Benrey come on. You can’t give up now, they’re here, they’re here for you.” She whispered, out of habit, and, to her relief, his eye slowly opened. It wasn’t focused, but hazy, taking a second to land on her face. “Come, on, you can’t give up on me now.” 

She leaned down a bit closer to his face, purposefully singing a line of sweet voice directly into his parted mouth. They choked on it at first, but managed to swallow a good portion down, bringing a bit of alertness back into their eyes, and thus she turned, focusing her sweet voice on the major injuries, coating them all in a thick sheen of teal to green. It took another shot of dirt-colored sweet voice to bring daem back again. 

Through out this, dae didn’t speak, breathing shallowly as she desperately tried to stop the descent. The door creaked open more, and she turned, sweet voice dribbling from the side of her mouth as she spotted Gordon pushing the door open, a rather frantic star behind him, as well as two more humans that Rigel didn’t recognize. She turned her head back, singing another line of dirt sweet voice at him, finally getting his eyes to focus completely, though they remained hazy with pain. 

“I told you, I told you they were coming for you, they’re here, it’s okay, just hang on a bit more, alright?” Benrey’s eyes flashed with something, as relief bubbled from his lips, the first sweet voice that he had let out, though it hung heavy, mostly falling to the ground instead of floating like healthy sweet voice should. 

The star was next to her in moments, mimicking the sweet voice healing along his wounds, layering it, and Benrey grinned, one hand coming up, shaking. “Tommy...” 

“Hey Benrey.” He murmured, taking Benrey’s hand carefully, and Rigel pushed herself away a bit, fearing that she was interrupting something. 

“Rigel.” Gordon sat next to her. The few days out of their hands had done him wonders, she noticed, as most of his injured looked worlds better, if not completely gone. “Where are the other two? We saw Canopus, that was Canopus right? Your sibling?” Rigel nodded wildly, eyes focusing on Gordon’s. 

“I don’t... I don’t know where Arcturus and Capella are, where they went. Please, if you can, save Capella. It doesn’t deserve this.” She whispered. “I know it was bad, and horrible, but please.” 

“We’re doing our best, okay?” Gordon said, and dragged her into a hug. Rigel clung onto him carefully, shoulders shaking as she began to cry. She just wanted Canopus, at this point, but dear lord, what they were doing was too much. She took the comfort, even if it was from a human who wouldn’t be able to fully understand the pain of the stars. 

The door creaked again behind them all. 

* * *

G-Man stared down the star across the room, who said nothing, staring back with tear-shiny eyes. Bubby stood behind G-Man, slightly off center, smoke curling from his hands carefully, controlled. 

“What is your purpose here?” G-Man asked carefully, and the star across the way smiled sadly, pushing themselves off the wall, moving closer carefully. 

“To protect my sister. Perhaps I have aligned myself with a monster in trying to do so, but... What other way did I have? Capella isn’t the only who lost a constellation to a rouge black hole.” G-Man tensed at this, and flames flicked up Bubby’s arms. The star raised their hands up in almost surrender. “Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that makes all black holes bad. Not all stars are good, after all, but...” They sighed, shaking their head. “I need to protect Rigel, anyway I can.” 

“Don’t think that this is hurting her?” Bubby spoke from behind G-Man, and ignored the sharp look G-Man sent at him. “Bringing her into this? Exposing her to this kind of environment? I’m not sure how stars bring up their kids, but the idea that there were two tortured beings in a room that Rigel could access and see the damage of seems kind of... fucked up to say the least.” 

“What else was I to do?” They cried, heat flooding off of them in waves. Bubby stepped behind G-Man after the first, seeing the heat of it more powerful than his own flames. “Rigel has always been curious, she will always be. I don’t know how to protect her.”

“But we do.” G-Man said simply. “Trust... that we aren’t your enemy here. Trust that we could- we can help.” They stared, arms wrapped around themselves carefully, before nodding. 

“Okay... only if you promise me that we’re going to fucking kill Arcturus.” 

Bubby grinned, peeking out from behind G-Man. “Of course we are.” G-Man smiled, though just barely, holding a hand out to the star, who moved forwards, not taking it, though G-Man didn’t seem bothered by this. 

“Canopus. Let’s go get Rigel, she’ll probably be with Benrey by now.” Canopus led them with no hesitation down the halls, finally stopping at a door slightly ajar. Inside, G-Man could see could see Tommy kneeling next to the mostly unmoving form of Benrey, Darnold at his side. G-Man pushed the door open further to peek inside, causing them all to tense, eyes flicking towards them. 

This is when G-Man noted that Tommy’s eyes were glowing. The three stepped inside carefully, and Canopus rushed to Rigel, as Gordon pulled away from her to let the two cling. Gordon moved over to Benrey instead, and Coomer peeked out the door, eyes darting each way down the hall and seeing nothing. 

“What’s the plan?” Bubby asked, and Tommy glanced over, then looked down to Benrey. 

“You won’t like it.” Bubby narrowed his eyes carefully. G-Man seemed to understand. 

“Humans have to stay.” G-Man stated simply, holding up a hand as Bubby specifically went to argue. “And human-adjacents. We have no... doubts on your abilities... however... this is not a fight you will be able to fight.” 

“We fought Benrey and won.” Gordon argued. 

“And you had a star on your side, not to mention Benrey wasn’t out to kill.” Tommy said, eyes focusing on Gordon, who frowned at him. “These two will be. They are out for blood, and sure, you have us on your side, but at this point, you would be collateral damage in an all out fight like this. Besides, someone needs to stay with Benrey... I don’t know if he can come back in here.” 

The realization of this struck them all at once. If Benrey died in this pocket dimension, he wouldn’t come back. With this, they needed someone here to make sure he stayed awake, alert enough for them to win and then get out. 

“I’ll stay. I can use sweet voice after all.” Rigel said. “Besides, Canopus wouldn’t let me go anyways.” 

“Damn right I wouldn’t.” Canopus muttered, shaking their head. “I’ll go. I have a feeling I know where they are anyways. Us three. If it makes you two feel better.” They gestured towards Coomer and Bubby, who were the two most obviously upset at not being able to fight. “Guard the door. If you see anyone that isn’t us, get back in, shut it. Rigel isn’t the best at those portals, so she only uses it in emergencies, but that constitutes as an emergency. Rigel-” 

“If that happens, open it, get everyone out and then go myself.” 

“Perfect.” 

The group fell silent at that, eyes darting around. Tommy clung onto Benrey for a moment, before pressing a careful kiss to their forehead. He turned, dragging Darnold forwards to kiss her carefully, then doing the same to Gordon. 

“Don’t you dare die on us.” Gordon muttered against his lips, and Tommy smiled, carefully laying Benrey’s head in his lap. 

“I’ll do my best.” He said, standing carefully. Rigel took his place besides Tommy as the sweet voice user, and watched them as they left the room. Coomer and Bubby clung to G-Man for just a moment. 

“Die and I’ll bring you back to kill you myself.” Bubby muttered, and G-Man laughed softly, nodding. 

“Noted.” 

With that, the group of three left the Coomer and Bubby at the door, who had their hands clasped together, marching down the halls with a single minded purpose. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mmmm!!! 
> 
> So after about a couple days of deliberation, I decided who I want to die :) Have fun knowing that I now know :)


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoo boy! I did not plan for a plot point in here, holy shit. Hope you enjoy anyways!

Tommy only had a passing thought that Canopus was dragging them into a trap. Canopus had clung to Rigel as tightly as Tommy used to cling to G-Man after nightmares. Canopus cared for Rigel too much for them to lead the two of them into a trap like this. Rigel, on the other hand, was too good to think, even for a moment that Arcturus was in the right. Tommy was sure of that, one hundred percent.

Canopus led them down the halls carefully, though rather quickly. Tommy couldn’t fully tell where they were going, unable to find the trail of them, but Canopus seemed to pick up on it. G-Man, after a moment, did as well, leaving Tommy a bit in the dark. 

Not literally, of course. With how hot his anger burned, it was far easier to just let his light burn across his skin, a bit too much for G-Man, at his side, to be able to completely dampen. Not that G-Man was trying anyways. G-Man knew how hard it was to get Tommy angry, and how much it took to get him truly pissed off. The fire at the center of his soul was bright, one of the brightest that G-Man had ever seen in life. Angry, it was too much for the human form that they took on to contain. 

So Tommy was their light. Even with Canopus being another star, Tommy outshone them. 

There was a door. Canopus’s eyes darted around a moment, before shaking their head. “Bastard led us basically in a circle. We’re still close to the others, so be careful.” The two nodded, and Canopus pushed open the door, ducking out of the way rather quickly, leaving Tommy the first to step in. He did so with no hesitation, eyes landing on Capella across the room, hands glowing near white, eyes locked onto Tommy’s. Arcturus wasn’t seen yet, but G-Man seemed to know, eyes locking onto a force just past Capella, as if he was using Capella as a shield. 

Tommy felt his own heat burn hotter, skin bubbling against his own body, though it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling, not to him. It was more like coming home to a place he hadn’t seen in a long time. He really should use his own abilities more often, Tommy began to realize, as his skin seemed to flare out of his shoulder, and Tommy grinned slightly. Capella seemed almost unnerved at this, but Arcturus melted from the shadows, hand on Capella’s shoulder, and it shook itself, and leaped at Tommy all at once. 

He lost sight of G-Man and Canopus at once, focusing all in on Capella. Capella, hands glowing white, slamming into him full force. The room shook, as two stars collided, skin burning against each other, though neither really felt the pain of it. Tommy let his eyes go white, and it gave Capella enough pause for Tommy to send a knee up into it’s stomach, forcing it back so that Tommy could bounce away, light on his feet and grinning, away from the wall. 

It shook off the shock, solar flare ripping free from it’s chest, Tommy just barely dancing out of the way, bouncing on his tip toes as his fire only grew warmer. How hot could he go? Tommy didn’t know. He had never found an upper limit to his abilities, never pushed them like that before, never had the reason to do it. This might just be his reason, but he didn’t really want to kill anyone, forcing his anger down enough to focus on Capella. 

“We don’t need to fight. Just tell us what you want.” Tommy’s voice layered, echoing over itself, piling over itself, and Tommy found himself a bit surprised. That didn’t often happen. Capella seemed shocked as well, eyes darting between him and Arcturus. “Please. I don’t want to hurt you.” 

“Well I do!” Capella slammed itself at him again, and Tommy caught it’s hands in his own, burning white hot, and Capella’s eyes went wide, jerking back suddenly, staring down at it’s hands in shock, where smoke curled from the slightly burned skin across it’s knuckles. Tommy had burnt it. 

“Please.” He pleaded again, eyes darting up behind it just in time to watch G-Man fling Arcturus back across the room, though Arcturus seemed completely unbothered by this fact, grinning with needle sharp teeth he hadn’t had before. He looked back to Capella, still staring at it’s hands in shock. “Please. Tell me what I can do to help-” 

“Why do you side with that thing?” Capella asked, eyes darting towards Tommy. He frowned at this. “A black hole is nothing but blackness and pain, they cause nothing but tragedy, why, when it stole you away from your constellation, do you think that it’s good?” 

And Tommy paused, blinking slowly. “Capella...” It flinched back at it’s own name, eyes going wide. “G-Man... my dad tried to get rid of me.” 

Capella’s eyes went wide, going stock still. Tommy brightened, catching it in his light, blocking them from the view of Arcturus, just in case. 

“My dad found me, when I was new. Just barely alive. I was alone. Wandering the cosmos with no constellation to see. I remember it so clearly, when something dark and large came to me, and I lit up, Because this was someone like me, a celestial, and I latched on. G-Man tried, i know that much, to get rid of me. Took me to a constellation he knew existed, and tried to pass me off. They accepted me in, of course, but I fought it, and I fought it hard. Why would they take me away from the only one I knew? And I hurt some people that day. Not badly, not enough for them to be injured permanently, but they chased G-Man down because of it, passed me back.” Capella’s eyes were wide, staring at him in what Tommy could only describe as wonder. “And the moment G-Man picked me back up, I calmed. My dad... didn’t steal me. I chose to be with G-Man, one hundred percent of the time.” 

Capella stayed silent, as if it’s entire worldview as being rewritten in that moment. It looked down at it’s shaking hand’s, tears evaporating the moment they slid from its eyes, but the sentiment stayed the same. 

“I know, you probably had a bad experience with a black hole, but I can promise you, Capella. They are not all like that. G-Man is not like that.” Tommy took a careful step forwards, then another, as Capella stared simply at it’s hands, the burn marks healing carefully after a moment. 

“They were all dead.” It’s voice was flat, and Tommy understood what it meant, but sat silent through it’s explanation anyways. “I left. For just a few moments-” Tommy knew from experience it could range from seconds to years, a few moments with a star. “And when I came back, all I found were the empty husks of stars that I had know as my family. All I knew in that moment had been destroyed, and I watched, from just enough away that it wouldn’t notice me, as the bastard took the life of my final remaining family, draining it and leaving the husk behind like trash, going off in search of others. In that moment... my rage was too much, and I did everything in my power to destroy them.” 

Tommy had carefully moved forwards towards Capella, keeping them hidden in the bright white light from Arcturus’s view, still keeping it in check, until he stood right in front of it. The entire time, Capella didn’t look up. 

“Arcturus saved me. I almost died, I wasn’t strong enough to fight off a black hole that had destroyed my entire family like that, stole it’s energy, but he was. In that moment, he took it down, killed it completely, and saved me. He... he preached to me, told me how to stop this from ever happening again.” 

“The eradication of an entire species.” Tommy said quietly, and Capella laughed darkly, sniffling, finally looking up at him. 

“The only way to stop black holes from hurting more stars like this was to destroy them all, wasn’t it?” It asked, tears flowing just fast enough to make it down to it’s cheek bones before evaporating into the air around them. “Eradicate the threat.” 

“Capella.” Tommy frowned slightly. “How many stars were there in your constellation?” He asked carefully, and Capella shook it’s head. 

“Easily a hundred.” It smiled up at him. “And it killed them all with no mercy.” 

“Capella.” Tommy repeated, and it frowned at him. “How was Arcturus able to defeat a black hole that easily, if it had taken the energy of a hundred stars? More?” 

There was a pause. Capella’s eyes glazed over for a second, and Tommy could almost see it break. “No... no he wouldn’t...” 

“You and I both know it’s the only way.” He said gently, one hand coming up to rest of it’s shoulder, and Capella sobbed, shaking, collapsing to the floor as the realization that the black hole was not the cause of its family’s death hit it all at once. Tommy sunk down with it, arms coming up and around it’s shoulders, and they rocked, as Capella’s voice broke. 

“Arcturus... Arcturus said he loved me.” It whispered in a crackling voice, and Tommy smiled sadly, one hand coming up to it’s hair, clinging. 

“He lied.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YEAH. BITCHES THAT FUCKING HAPPENED.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there! Tommy's kinda badass <3

Tommy knew that the fight was still raging on, that Capella could not sit here frozen in it’s anguish forever. Still, he let it cry for a moment more, let it break apart as the realization that the one person it though that it could trust in life had betrayed it before they were even close enough, had orchestrated it’s pain. 

But the moment had to end. The fight had to go on, and Tommy knew this well. So he pulled away from the clinging hug, holding it’s face carefully. 

“Listen. I need you to know that we can help, but right now, we have to take him down. He will do this to others if we don’t, you understand? More will die for his idea of justice, and it’s not worth it.” 

Capella nodded, shaking, but holding onto Tommy’s wrists, steadying itself, calming as quickly as it could manage. Tommy stood, carefully pulling it up with him. 

“And I promise. We have quite the capacity for forgiveness. Benrey tried to kill us, and we killed daem, now look at us.” Tommy grinned, and it got a surprised laugh out of Capella, just enough for Tommy to feel comfortable letting down the light. 

And what a sight to return to. 

Canopus was collapsed in the corner, blood leaking from a rather serious head wound, though, if Tommy had to guess, it was less them being incapacitated by it, and more them trying to heal it quickly in order to get back in the fight, based on the brightly glowing blood, rather than the normal just slightly glowing blood. G-Man and Arcturus were locked in what seemed to be a stalemate, though both looked rougher for wear. Arcturus’s nose was bleeding heavily, dripping bright gold against the concrete, one arm hanging limply by his side, a snarl painted across his lips. G-Man, on the other hand, had black blood smeared up G-Man’s face, one eye half closed against the sting of it, though Tommy couldn’t see a source, as G-Man leaned more against one leg than the other, eyes laser focused on Arcturus. 

Capella broke the stalemate in a second. Upon seeing Arcturus, Tommy could almost see the despair turn to rage, and with a scream that nearly hurt, it launched itself at Arcturus, landing a punch across his face, tears streaking down it’s face. Tommy took the chance to move over to G-Man, slipping under one of G-Man’s arms, dragging the two of them over to Canopus, whose skin was still stitching itself back together across their skull, one eye tracking Tommy and G-Man, the other lying still in it’s socket. 

Tommy got G-Man down, watching as G-Man’s ankle popped back into place with a sickening snap, eyes snapping back to Canopus’s face. “What happened?” 

“He’s pretty fucking strong is what happened.” Canopus muttered, pressing against their eye, and Tommy realized that it had been nearly out of the socket, which is why it hadn’t tracked them like the other hand. “What happened with Capella?” 

“Arcturus helped kill it’s entire constellation, with the help of a black hole, which Capella saw, and then Arcturus framed himself as the hero of the story. I managed to get that through to it, and uh...” Tommy glanced over, relishing, for a moment, the fear in Arcturus’s eyes. “That happened.” 

“Go help it. I have no doubts that you- that Arcturus could beat it in a fight like this. You can, you need to help.” G-Man’s head fell back for a moment, and Tommy nodded, watching skin knit back together for a moment, before standing and moving back over to the fight. 

There was something to be said of a star raised by a black hole. Stars are not often ruthless on their own, and this is still shown in Tommy, as he was always prone to seeing the positive in everyone, while black holes tended to see the negative, tended to watch themselves a bit closer. A black hole raising a star meant one thing: The star in question tended towards the positive as one would expect, but never be blinded to the truth, and Tommy was all the more powerful for it. Warmth radiated off of him, as Capella’s screaming began to form words around him, though he didn’t pay attention to them, fire burning through his body. 

If he could get a clear shot, Tommy could end this entire time in one hit. Destroy Arcturus completely, past the atomatic level, leave him no chance of ever coming back. He didn’t even need to do it completely, just a clear shot to the heart, and Arcturus would be no more, they could get out of here with no casualties except him.  
That was the only death that needed to happen. 

Still, Tommy had no clear shot, as Capella screamed, burning hands tearing through Arcturus’s flesh, and Tommy saw the truth behind Arcturus.

He ruled over fear, not power. As long as he was feared, he was strong. As long as he had control over someone with more power than him, like Capella, Arcturus could steal their power and make himself seem more than them in comparison. With Capella no longer scared of him, with Capella full of rage against him, Arcturus lost a chunk of his abilities to it, and thus... he was scared. 

In a split second, there was a clear shot, and Tommy didn’t hesitate before taking it, burning flesh pulled back, no longer a fist, but instead just pure energy, pure power, sinking through to Arcturus’s heart, closing around it. 

Perhaps, however, he should have hesitated on that shot, as his molten flesh passed through two bodies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kinda short but hey! That's alright!

Tommy drew his hand back, eyes widening. Arcturus’s chest gaped open in front of him, his eyes wide, the edges of the bloody wound falling into nothing like ash. Tommy didn’t feel remorse watching Arcturus crumble, but when faced with Capella, the result of his own failures, tears sprung to his eyes. Everything in his power went to stopping the wound from spreading, stopping the vaporization before it got too far, but even then, Tommy already knew it was too far. He didn’t have enough power to stop it, after using it all causing it in the first place, but that wouldn’t stop him from trying to save it. 

They collapsed in sync, Arcturus falling with a dull noise, the only thing that came to mind for Tommy being a half full bag of flour, before completely disappearing from the world and existence, and Tommy felt matter shift around against them, as Arcturus was wiped from life in a moment, leaving nothing but a pile of ash spread across the floor around them behind. Tommy held onto Capella’s being as it destabilized, wrapped himself around it and kept it together out of pure willpower and hope, and Capella’s eyes shifted to him, tears streaking down it’s face. 

But there was no betrayal like Tommy had expected, no anger or hurt, despite the pain of crumbling to pieces. Instead, it smiled in relief, shaking bloody hand coming up to pat his cheek gently. “Let me go... Just let me die, it’s okay.” 

He shook, clinging to it, as Canopus slid up to Tommy’s side, shaking hand coming to smooth back Capella’s hair, G-Man hovering just behind Tommy, as he shook, exhaustion bordering across his senses, losing his grip on Capella’s being with each second passing. “No, no, we can-... we can save you, you don’t- it’ll be okay-” 

“Tommy please.” He fell silent, as the control of Capella’s form began to slip further and further from his grasp, and Capella smiled again. “I’ll... I’ll be with them again. It’s okay. That’s... That’s all I’ve ever wanted, Tommy.” 

And despite that, Tommy still clung. 

It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair, this wasn’t fair. Capella hadn’t deserved this, it wasn’t bad, this wasn’t right. Tommy sobbed softly, and G-Man placed a hand carefully on Tommy’s shoulder, as Capella slipped just a bit more from Tommy’s grasp. Nothing was right. Capella deserved a redemption arc, didn’t it? Benrey got his, Bubby got his, Canopus was going to get theirs, why as this so different? Why had he not hesitated, saw the calculating look in Arcturus’s eyes before he struck, why had he not thought about this more, maybe then it would be okay, maybe then Capella would live, get what it deserved properly, the reward just out of reach.

“Please. It’s okay... Let me go.” A final whispered plea, and Tommy broke. G-Man leaned down, carefully placing a hand over Capella’s eyes as they slipped closed anyways, Tommy losing his grip on it, and it melted from his arms, becoming nothing more than ash and a memory. 

He curled in on himself, shaking. If it was just Arcturus, he wouldn’t have batted an eye, would have gotten up and kept going, knowing there was no way to prevent it, no other way to end this battle, but Capella... Capella didn’t deserve it’s fate to die here, lost to the world as nothing more than the villain’s side kick and punching back, and Tommy sobbed, turning into G-Man’s chest, as his father hummed, gently shushing him, Canopus holding a handful of ash in their hands, staring down at it in silence.

It took a moment for Tommy to settle, chest heaving in quiet sobs as he tried to compose himself. They weren’t safe yet, still in a domain shaped by Arcturus and his rules, and they needed to get back, get Benrey safe before anyone thought anything, and yet Tommy couldn’t stop, finally resolving to just cry, standing with it, wiping at his cheeks, spreading glowing tears across his cheeks and hands, leaving glowing stains across G-Man’s suit, and Canopus hugged him carefully, as Tommy hiccuped softly. 

Canopus dropped back down, gather as much of Capella’s ash as they could, without getting Arcturus mixed in, and filled their pockets with it, having no other way of containing it, and for some reason, it hit Tommy all over again, that there was no coming back from this fate, nothing there that could bring Capella back from death. 

There were pounding footsteps, racing down the hall towards them, and, for a moment, Tommy worried there was a fifth star in this group, one none of them knew about, only Arcturus, Tommy wouldn’t have put it past the bastard, but instead it was Rigel, hair forming a wild halo around her head, having broken free from her bandanna, which was tied around her wrist now. Glowing tears matched her to Tommy, and the panic of a fifth unknown star was replaced with the panic of what must have happened while they were gone here, fighting this battle, while they fought one all of their own. 

“Rigel? What happened?” Canopus rush to her, hands cupping their sister’s face, and Rigel grabbed onto Canopus’s wrists, chest heaving as she tried to breath enough to calm down, tried to handle herself to be able to talk. 

"It’s Benrey.” She whimpered, pressing herself against Canopus in search of comfort, as they all were. “He won’t wake up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry, Capella deserves better than my sinful hands.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hewwo there! I hope you don't want me dead!

As Tommy, G-Man, and Canopus left them behind, Rigel continued to layer sweet voice across Benrey’s wounds, frowning slightly as Benrey’s eyes continued to focus and unfocus, darting between them all as they tried to latch onto something, anything to focus on. Dirt colored sweet voice slid in around the teal and green, and Benrey’s eyes slowly focused on Gordon again. 

“There you are love...” He murmured, carefully pushing back Benrey’s hair, and Benrey smiled at him. Rigel shifted slightly, glancing to Darnold, who had settled on the other side of Benrey, carefully settled near his back, Benrey having been curled on his side. 

Rigel frowned softly, eyes darting around Benrey’s wounds, watching the teal to green settle into his skin, eyes narrowed at it. 

“What’s wrong?” Darnold asked softly, and her eyes flicked up towards her, before back down to the sweet voice. 

“It’s better if its more than one person... Layering it is better than just one person doing what they can, especially in scenarios like this. If it’s layered, one person doesn’t exhaust themselves and leave...” Her eyes flicked to Gordon. “... anything unhealed...” 

There was a pause, before Gordon lifted his head. “Hey Dr. Coomer?” 

“Yes, Gordon?” Coomer leaned back a bit, peeking into the room. 

“You can use sweet voice a bit, right?” 

Coomer paused. “Well... not well and not under that much control, but yes.” 

Rigel lit up, pushing herself away from Benrey carefully, bouncing over, eyes darting down both sides of the hallway carefully. Bubby leaned on the other side of the door, eyes darting for a second towards her, before back down the hall towards where the others had gone. The ground shook around them a moment, and Rigel placed a hand on the doorway to steady herself. “Show me. Teal to green, healing beam.” 

It paused for a moment, seeming to think on it, before carefully singing out a note. It was off, just a bit, but Rigel nodded, slipping out of the room and pointing back in. “I need you to layer it. It’ll help, I can stay out here while you do.” Coomer seemed nervous for a moment, but nodded, moving back into the room, as Rigel took his place leaning against the wall. 

Bubby looked towards her for a second, as she fiddled with her sleeves, eyes darting nervously down the halls. “Are you okay?” He asked softly, and Rigel’s eyes flicked to him, realizing in that moment that their eyes matched, bright red standing out against the stark white. She blinked, before nodding. 

“Not the... not the first time something like this has happened around us. Probably won’t be the last, really. Canopus and I have... had a lot of trouble in the constellation part after I got exiled from one...” Bubby raised xyr eyebrows at her, and she smiled sheepishly. “Didn’t know how to control my sweet voice. Was naturally born with it, unlike most stars who have to work on it a bit, and thus... a lot of accidents happened. Canopus went with me, since I was still pretty young at the time. We’ve been wondering when a good time to go back and check in would be, but Canopus doesn’t know how to tell them that I didn’t mean to cause all the young ones to fight and almost kill each other...” 

Bubby nodded slowly, and Rigel smiled up at him. Xe glanced past her again, eyes searching the empty hallways, before landing back on her. “It happens sometimes. You know, you learn something knew, accidentally burn down an entire laboratory, and they get angry at you for it.” 

Rigel had a feeling their experiences had a few fundamental differences, but nodded anyways, smiling. The ground shook again, and Bubby pressed against the wall, eyes closing tightly. Rigel sighed. “I think that’s Tommy... it’s a good sign. Means that he’s probably winning.” 

She got a nod from Bubby again, and frowned, watching him quietly, waiting for his eyes to open again. It took a moment after the shaking stopped, the hallway beginning to crumble around them, but Bubby’s eyes opened, catching on Rigel staring at him. “I’m fine.” 

“I’ll get Dr. Coomer.” She said instead of debating it, peeking her head in just in time to see Dr. Coomer standing, brushing himself off. He smiled at her, moving over and, upon spotting Bubby, patted her shoulder and moved closer to him, carefully taking his hand. Rigel moved back into the room, sitting down to layer the sweet voice again before sitting back, shaking in exhaustion. 

Benrey’s eyes unfocused as they fell on her, and she frowned, sitting up a bit, watching them slowly focus back in. He smiled carefully, letting them close. Rigel blinked, watching for a moment carefully, before reaching over and shaking his shoulder gently. 

His eyes didn’t open. 

Rigel did it again, harder, and nothing. She pushed herself up without a second thought, turning and running from the room, ducking under Coomer’s arm, racing down the halls in the direction that her sibling had gone. At some point, her headband began to come undone, and she grabbed it, managing to wrap it around her wrist as she continued to bolt down the halls, skidding into the room they were in, eyes darting between the three standing there, tears streaking down her face. 

When she could finally speak once more, hands shaking and breath hitching, she clung to Canopus’s wrists and sobbed. “Benrey won’t wake up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... I'm just gonna keep prolonging this I'm so sorry-


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kinda short? But I think that's alright.

Tommy took the lead. That was understandable, as he tore down the halls on intuition alone, Canopus having to carry Rigel on their back to get her back to the room. Rigel, with the combination of being the only one with a strong sense of her sweet voice, as well as running down the halls the long way, was exhausted, and, after telling them the situation, had collapsed. 

G-Man offered to carry her, but Canopus hefted her up onto their back and took off after Tommy, who hadn’t even waited for Rigel to hit the floor to book it. 

When Tommy skidded into the room, the doorway unguarded as Bubby and Coomer must have moved in, he saw them crowded around Benrey. Gordon had his head pressed against Benrey’s chest, as if trying to hear a heartbeat, breathing, but Tommy already knew it wasn’t going to be there, judging by the heavy tears already soaking through Benrey’s chest. 

That didn’t mean anything though, right? Benrey didn’t always have a heartbeat, but kept it to make them more comfortable. They... they might just be tired of it, tired of keeping that up. 

The argument felt weak, even without Tommy voicing it. Benrey, in this moment, would keep it going as long as he possibly could, to signify his life. This sort of scenario, he would do that for them. It was the most minimal thing, something he didn’t even need his powers to flick on and off at will. If it wasn’t there... 

Tommy stumbled over, falling next to Gordon on one side. Darnold, on the other, had her hand on Gordon’s back, the other, shaking, slowly pushing through Benrey’s near matted hair. Tommy sunk down, one arm coming to settle against Gordon’s back as well, as he watched the unnatural stillness of Benrey’s chest, hoping to whatever being had created them that their chest would rise again. 

There was a moment, of nothing, where they were silent, as G-Man finally caught up, Canopus not far behind with Rigel clinging to their back. No real movement, no sound, and Tommy lifted his head, glancing between them all, vision blurred by brightly glowing tears streaking down his face. 

They hadn’t been fast enough. They couldn’t have gotten Benrey out fast enough, and here, Tommy didn’t think they were going to respawn. That... that power would have been blocked too, of course it was, and Tommy sniffled, trying to keep silent again, not break it, but Gordon whimpered besides him, and Tommy broke, as Gordon pulled away, gave up, and sobbed. 

Darnold pressed against Gordon’s other side, shoulders shaking as she held back her own tears, and Tommy clung to the two of them, reminding himself they were alive. They were alive, living, okay, and Tommy hated the fact that his mind just reminded him over and over, they were the most likely to die. Benrey should have been around with him forever, but now, he was gone and- 

“Fuck... do i gotta kill for makin you cry?” Tommy jerked away from Gordon, though, as Darnold and Gordon both pulled away just as quickly, Tommy was sure they weren’t upset with him. Sweet voice bubbled out of the side of Benrey’s mouth, as his shaking hand came up towards them, searching, and Tommy caught it, only crying harder, which seemed to confuse Benrey. “Ben... just took a lil nappy... just a lil one..” He murmured, and Tommy couldn’t help the hysterical laughter the bubbled up from his throat, curling in on himself. 

“Don’t.” Gordon muttered, as Darnold pressed her forehead against Benrey’s, and Benrey made a soft, confused noise. “We couldn’t, we couldn’t wake you up, and you don’t respawn in here, Benrey.” The realization filtered across Benrey’s eyes, and his other hand, somehow even shakier than the one clutched in Tommy’s hands, came up, grabbing at Gordon gently, though none of them were really sure if the gentleness was Benrey, or just Benrey being too weak to do more. Gordon caught it, kissing his knuckles lightly, and Benrey smiled at him, sweet voice staining his teeth as it tried to bubble free, instead getting caught when it couldn’t float right. 

“We need to get him home.” G-Man said quietly, and Tommy nodded quickly, pulling back from Benrey. Gordon and Darnold took just a second to do the same, and Tommy lifted Benrey up into his arms, softly apologizing as Benrey hissed in pain, sweet voice spilling against his shirt. Darnold clung to Gordon’s arm, who didn’t seem to mind, and would probably be clinging back if it weren’t his right side she was on. Canopus re-situated Rigel on their back, as Bubby and Coomer stood, the latter helping the former up, and G-Man opened a rift through the universe, dark, and yet somehow bright all at once, the salvation away from this dark and horrible place. Tommy led the way out, and, as he stepped through, Benrey’s hand, which clung to Tommy’s shirt, began to go limp under him, and Tommy, in desperation, began to run, leaving the others behind, hoping he’d make it out of the other side in time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I just fake out Benrey's death, and then also end on a cliffhanger if he's gonna actually die or not? Yes. Yes I did. Love y'all!!


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UwU! Here's the next chapter right after chapter twenty!!! Love y'all <3

The apartment came into view around him, as he skidded through the rift, faintly hearing footsteps following him, though he didn’t know how he could hear it so well. There was nothing really solid in the rifts, but, for whatever reason, it sounded like they were running on gravel roads.

It wasn’t something to be focusing on right now, but it was what Tommy was focusing on, instead of Benrey’s lolling head.

“Come on, Benrey...” Tommy muttered, laying daem carefully on the couch, uncaring of the fact that they were probably going to have to get a new couch, with Gordon and Benrey both having been heavily bleeding and leaking various other things on this thing. That was fine, it would be fine-

Benrey’s eyes flicked open again, taking a shuddering breath against broken ribs, and Tommy smiled, dully feeling someone thud against the couch next to him. Benrey’s eyes flicked towards Gordon and Darnold for a moment, before flicking back to Tommy, smiling softly, letting them slipped closed, but forcing himself to breathe. Tommy’s eyes darted down to his chest, watching his chest move brokenly, and he sighed softly, shaking his head.

Pushing Benrey’s shirt up a bit, ignoring the mumbling that was probably Benrey attempting to make a joke, but being unable to properly speak words, Tommy’s heart sank at the myriad of bruises across their chest and stomach.

Too much internal bleeding, he was sure of it. There was too much here, too many injuries piled up on top of each other, and Tommy sat back on his heels, drawing away from Benrey slowly. Benrey’s eyes flicked open for just a moment, but not for long, closing again, and Gordon reached out, carefully holding his hand.

“I don’t... I don’t know.” Tommy said softly, before any of them could ask. He felt the rift close behind him, and he turned, catching his dad’s eye. “I don’t know.”

“We are out.” G-Man said softly, and Tommy nodded.

“Don’t know what?” Bubby spoke up, and Tommy’s eyes shifted to xym for a moment, before sliding between the rest of them, from Coomer to Canopus and Rigel.

“He won’t recover, not like this.” Tommy said simply. “There’s too much damage. Basing what Benrey can recover from on how many times it would have killed a human, there is a limit on what he can recover this body from.”

“But we’re out.” Gordon said, eyes darting to Tommy. “Dae can, Dae can respawn here, right?” He asked softly, and Tommy’s eyes darted between him and Darnold, hovering at Gordon’s shoulder anxiously.

“I don’t know. Dae... Dae should. Dae should be able to, but, Gordon, the only way to find that out is to let daem die here. To see if Dae comes back. And that could take... awhile. On the coming back part. You know how long it took the first time dae died, right?”

Gordon nodded slowly. When Benrey had been bisected by the door, it had taken awhile for him to come back to life again. “But dae... dae could... skeleton, right? dae did that in there too.”

Tommy nodded slowly. “That’s if dae come back.” He looked back to Benrey, who slowly opened his eyes at him, sweet voice dripping from between his lips. “But he's... he's not gonna be able to heal all this, even if we sit next to him and cover him with sweet voice head to toe, all three of us able to. It won’t help.”

G-Man came up next to Tommy, settling a hand on his shoulder. “He’s holding on... for you three.”

There was a moment of silence, before Gordon very gently squeezed Benrey’s hand, and Benrey’s eyes shifted to Gordon. “It’s okay.”

It was all any of them said, Darnold silent at Gordon’s side, tears sliding down her face, Tommy with his hand in Benrey’s hair, and they watched, in silence, as Benrey’s eyes slowly slid closed again, his chest becoming unmoving. For a moment, he clung back to Gordon’s hand, before it slowly slid out of Gordon’s grasp, going limp to the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DO I KEEP PROLONGING THIS YES? IT FITS OKAY IM SORRY-


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOO BOY 
> 
> FINALLY THE REVEAL

As Benrey’s hand went limp, sliding to the floor, Tommy closed his eyes, pressing against Gordon’s side. There was one thing that they could do here, and it was wait, and Tommy didn’t want to wait. Time manipulation wouldn’t be helpful in this situation, as time passed differently in the void between the worlds, where they waited when their bodies died, and there was nothing that Tommy could do to speed this process up. 

There was a soft noise, and Tommy opened his eyes, watching quietly as Benrey’s body began to disappear into sweet voice. 

That was how it worked, after all. The body he left behind in death, when he returned with a new one like this, would melt into sweet voice, the feelings he had just before death, and Tommy shook, pressing himself against Gordon’s side, watching as nothing but relief came from the disappearing body. 

There was a moment, where Tommy felt that he would be okay, if Benrey didn’t come back. That Benrey had died okay, that they had known there was that chance and he knew that it was okay in the end to let go. It would be okay. 

They were quiet, clinging to one another, before Tommy felt someone’s hands under his arms, pulling him up. He got his feet under him, glancing around, seeing Bubby and Coomer helping Gordon and Darnold up. Tommy watched this quietly, as the two got them situated on the couch, and, as G-Man went do do the same with him, Tommy paused, pressing his feet to the ground so he could turn. 

G-Man half expected the clinging hug, already prepared for it, Tommy wrapped up in G-Man’s arms the moment he turned. Tommy was quiet, didn’t cry again, didn’t make a noise, but G-Man still held on, eyes darting for a moment to Gordon and Darnold, who hand their hands intertwined, Gordon watching them quietly, not impatiently. Darnold stared forwards, a half dead look in her eyes, and G-Man sighed lowly, carefully walking Tommy over to them, untangling from Tommy just to sit him down next to the two of them. Tommy leaned his head on Gordon’s shoulder quietly, wrapping his arm around Gordon’s waist to hold onto Darnold’s shirt, and they all went still. 

There was a period of time there, maybe five minutes, where there was silence, no movement, nothing. Canopus, during that time, had gotten Rigel to the floor, sitting next to her quietly, and Coomer and Bubby sat around the bend of the couch. G-Man opted to continue standing, back to the wall so that G-Man could see the entire room. However, as time passed at a crawling pace, Rigel seemed to be waking up further from her stupor, and finally managed to shrug Canopus’s arm off her shoulder, and standing, stumbling a bit as she did. Tommy’s eyes tracked her as she walked to the kitchen, but Gordon continued staring down at her lap, and Darnold’s eyes remained blank. 

She came back out with three water bottles. Sitting on the floor next to Tommy, she cracked one open, then handed it up to him. He blinked at her, before grabbing it with shaking hands, taking a careful sip. He held it for a moment, before carefully nudging Gordon’s shoulder with his head and passing it along to him. Gordon held it quietly, staring as if it were something he had never seen, before carefully taking a sip. 

It took a few tries to get Darnold to take a drink, but she did, and they began to pass the bottle between them. Rigel passed one over to Coomer and Bubby, but once again focused on the three. 

They managed to drink a full water bottle, and were half way through another when there was a noise from the hallway. Tommy’s eyes found the door way first, but Gordon and Darnold weren’t far behind, staring at it quietly, watching as a skeleton stumbled into view. 

Rigel snatched the half empty water bottle from Tommy’s hand before it could fall, recapping it, as Tommy launched himself from the couch. Some how, he was beaten by Darnold to getting to Benrey, but Darnold hesitated a moment, hands hovering over Benrey’s face. There was a moment, when no one moved, before Benrey reached up, wrapping his bony hands around Darnold’s wrists, and clacked his jaw once at her, before purple sweet voice bubbled between his teeth, spilling out around them. 

Darnold broke, grabbing onto Benrey, despite the fact that he was just skeleton, and clung. Tommy wrapped them both in his arms, as Gordon wormed his way against Benrey’s other side, and the collapsed to the floor together. Benrey kept spilling the purple, like a spring evening, all across the room, letting it bounce against the walls and surround them completely, proof that he was okay, despite all odds stacked against him, and Tommy’s bright relief joined the gentle purple, as color surrounded them completely. 

They were okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did y'all really think I was gonna kill Benrey and keep him dead? Nah bro. 
> 
> Alright, all that's left is a lil epilogue! It's been a fun ride, and I will be posting the epilogue soon!


	23. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here it is! Finally. It's been a wild ride and I am super excited about it! Also did not take as long as I expected, but I did post 22 and then immediately start writing this so.... Yeah <3

Why did footsteps echo in nothing, G-Man wondered faintly, walking through the void of G-Man’s own making. There was nothing for them to echo off of, nothing for them to have made sound, and yet, they echoed, breaking through the void’s silence with gentle taps. 

It was an anomaly, but not one that G-Man was going to look into. G-Man found it rather soothing, actually. Perhaps that was the reasoning. 

Nearly a week after Benrey’s rescue, dae had still yet to return to a full human form, staying skeletal. It was something to be said, of what damage a star scorned as such could do, when Benrey wasn’t even healed properly yet. Rigel and Canopus had stayed on Earth with them, if only as a temporary fix, as not to get caught in anything else like Arcturus’s genocidal plans. As a plus, Rigel really liked Tommy, and, if G-Man was correct, as G-Man often was about these things, Rigel seemed to have formed an attachment to Tommy, in a brotherly way. 

Tommy, of course, acted oblivious to this. It would only serve to embarrass Rigel if mentioned at this point, and no one said a word, as Tommy taught her how to make kandi bracelets and other random things that Tommy knew, but no one else had either the talent or focus for. 

G-Man’s musings came to a stop, as G-Man found what G-Man had been searching for. Stasis was a tricky thing to keep up like this, but G-Man had no troubles with it by now. Many a times had someone been put into stasis in here, and, sometimes, they were still there, deep in the bowels of the nothing of G-Man’s own pocket dimension. 

Not even Tommy had access here. Which was fine. Tommy didn’t need to see this. 

The glowing, dissolving wound in it’s front wasn’t continuing to burn across it’s skin, but it wasn’t exactly reversing either. As far as G-Man knew, there was no way to reverse it. There was nothing but to stop it, and that’s what G-Man did. Stopped it. 

Capella wasn’t a death that Tommy needed to have on his conscious, but... until a time that G-Man could fix it, this is where Capella would stay, dead to all but G-Man, dead even to itself, as G-Man fought to fix this. Tommy would mourn, pull this onto himself as a mistake, be more careful with his abilities, but Tommy had always been careful 

G-Man wasn’t about to get Tommy’s hopes up that Capella could be saved, if it turned out to be a fruitless fight. Capella’s fate may already be sealed, and G-Man may only be prolonging this battle, keeping it alive in hopes that one day something unfixable could be fixed. 

There was silence, as G-Man looked upon Capella’s peaceful face, before sighing, and turning away from it, footsteps echoing in the dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't handle death bro, it makes me too sad. Arcturus, fuck Arcturus, but Capella deserves better, and by god, I'm going to leave a way for it to get better.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! This is fun! I'm gonna have fun with this I think!


End file.
